What is control banding in chemical hygiene?

• A. It requires precise quantitative hazard data for all chemicals
• B. It relies on employee intuition to determine controls
• C. It is a qualitative risk assessment that groups chemicals into categories to guide controls when quantitative data is lacking
• D. It ignores exposure data and focuses only on hazard class

Answer: (C)

Control banding is a qualitative approach that groups chemicals into categories based on hazard and expected exposure, to guide what controls are needed when you don’t have precise risk numbers. Instead of calculating exact risk, you place substances into bands and follow predefined, conservative control recommendations for each band. This helps workplaces make practical safety decisions with limited data, using exposure potential alongside hazard information to decide on containment, ventilation, administrative controls, and PPE. It isn’t based on intuition and it does consider exposure potential rather than focusing only on hazard class. So the best description is that it’s a qualitative risk assessment that groups chemicals into categories to guide controls when quantitative data are lacking.