Dr. Birgit Stöffler studied chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt (www.tu-darmstadt.de), where she completed her PhD at the Institute of Chemical Technology in 1997. She then worked as a scientific employee. From 2000 to 2002, she qualified as a safety engineer at BG Chemie (now BG RCI: www.bgrci.de) and has since worked as a safety engineer in the occupational safety department of an international chemical and pharmaceutical company. Her main topics are hazardous substances and the effects of GHS (Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals: www.unece.org/about-ghs) and the CLP Regulation (https://www.echa.europa.eu/web/guest/regulations/clp/understanding-clp) on occupational health and safety. She also gives many presentations on these topics. Birgit Stöffler has been a certified BG RCI trainer since 2010 and has been a deputy member of the Committee for Hazardous Substances (AGS: https://www.baua.de/EN/About-BAuA/Tasks/Committee-administration/AGS) as an expert and a member of Subcommittee II (protective measures) (Unterausschuss II – Schutzmaßnahmen: www.baua.de/DE/Die-BAuA/Aufgaben/Geschaeftsfuehrung-von-Ausschuessen/AGS/Ueber-den-AGS.html) since 2015. Since 2018, she has been a lecturer at the Technical University of Darmstadt on the subject of "Legal applications for future laboratory and production managers" and teaches students how to create a legally compliant risk assessment for activities involving hazardous substances.

The Pop in Your Job:
Nowadays, hazardous substances are everywhere and the regulations on hazardous substances have become very complicated. In these times with many fake news, it is my motivation as a chemist and as an occupational safety expert
- to spread scientific facts and fight fake news whenever possible,
- to support anyone to understand the hazards and risks of hazardous substances,
- to protect the occupational health and safety of people working with hazardous substances and
- to reduce the environmental impact by promoting substitution of hazardous substances.
With my decades of experience on regulations for hazardous substances, I can support managers how to transfer the complicated regulations to their workplaces and to achieve compliance by choosing adequate protective measures.

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