Planting seeds of recovery
There is a part of all of us that agrees with the notion 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. But, equally, when it comes to plant maintenance and operations, the purpose of this activity is to minimise the risk to the business of expensive downtime or outage, and perhaps prevent it happening in the first place. The management and mitigation of risk and probability of unwanted events occurring is key to successful business continuity.
Regulating safety
Plant engineers and managers bear a grave responsibility when it comes to health and safety. Brian Tinham examines what's available to help them do better
Shock tactics
About 1,000 accidents at work involving electric shock or burns – of which around 30 prove fatal – are still reported to the HSE annually. Brian Wall investigates procedures that could prevent needless deaths
DSEAR hazards
Although DSEAR (Dangerous Systems and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations) was enacted back in 2003, its implications for hazardous plant are still misunderstood. Barrie Church explains
Extracting rewards
Avoiding risk, safeguarding the workforce and complying with health and safety regulations are key goals of dust and fume extraction equipment. But there's also a financial reward to be reaped, reports Brian Wall
A process of elimination
Mercifully, serious incidents in the process industries are few and far between. Sadly, however, when they do happen, they're devastating. Consider Flixborough back in 1974, Piper Alpha in the North Sea in 1988 and, much more recently, Buncefield and BP Texas City. So it's against this background that we now operate chemical, petrochemical and similar hazardous process plants in tightly regulated environments.
Chemicals Legislation - A regulatory route map
There is an abundance of regulatory requirements for the safe use of chemicals within factories, warehouses and other facilities, most important of which are the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) 2002. Substances not included within COSHH, but requiring safe handling, are covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW) - the overarching legislation.