As we are still coming into a new year, we must remind ourselves to keep on top of the safety regulations that occur in every industry but especially within the chemical trade. Chemical safety is an essential concern for all industries that use hazardous substances and we here at PlusChem always care about our members’ safety. “Chemical hazards and toxic substances pose a wide range of health hazards (such as irritation, sensitization, and carcinogenicity) and physical hazards (such as flammability, corrosion, and explosibility)”. We want to share with you why chemical safety is mandatory in every business dealing with chemicals, speaking on the best practices that your company can carry out in order to protect your employees and its environment.
The first course of action, which is to be carried out in many industries, involves manual handling. Virtual college identifies the significance of how manual handling is major in the workplace. “Manual handling, practical training material and guidance needs to be offered to workers to ensure that they are aware of the risks involved with manual handling and the ways in which they can act to reduce these risks.” According to Unison, “every year, 300,000 people in the UK suffer from back pain due to manual handling accidents. Damage to the back, neck or spine can lead to extreme pain, temporary incapacity or permanent injury”. Employers must make sure their employees get the correct training in order to avoid any injuries. The main chemical safety practices within the industrial setting involve proper labeling and storing of hazardous materials, ventilation and spill containment measures. Two other big factors are, when staff are working with these chemicals, to make sure their PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is on and if an accident were to occur involving chemicals, your staff should know how to properly control it. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) states that “all employers with hazardous chemicals in their workplaces must have labels and safety data sheets for their exposed workers and train them to handle the chemicals appropriately”. Along with OSHA’s above statement is another useful source which can provide much deeper information about this topic, this is the HSA (health and safety authority) pdf. HSA mentions REACH within this document, “REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) is the system for controlling chemicals in Europe. It became law in Ireland on 1 June 2007”, you can click here to read more.
As we are a chemical company, the disposal of chemicals in the right manner is crucial to us, hence why we are trying to share our advice with others. If chemical waste is not carried out correctly this will then result in human health problems as well as agricultural issues. It is understood that chemicals are essential to our daily lives for example, healthcare, agriculture, cosmetics, etc. but unfortunately, some of these manmade chemicals can have effects if not wasted properly. If the correct procedures are not carried out and the chemicals are not wasted appropriately, your company could receive a large fine for not obeying the law. I will speak more of this in next month’s blog ‘Keeping Sustainable as a Chemical Company in 2025’ so stay tuned. Before concluding this month’s blog, here is a 8 step guide on spill response by Chemsafe which is a quick and efficient way of understanding what to do in case of an accidental spill.
At PlusChem we want the best for our members and staff and that specifically includes their health and safety. We hope our piece of advice will benefit your company in many areas. If you enjoyed this blog and would like to see more, click here to read more.
