Sigma-HSE Newsletter - June 2023
FREE Technical Webinar: Avoid Incidents Through Safe Policies, Procedures and Practices
The implementation of comprehensive, concise, and accurate process safety procedures are recognised as the most effective means of avoiding fire and explosion incidents and near misses.
Policies and procedures encompass a range of safeguards designed to ensure safety. Safe operating procedures, risk assessments, asset maintenance and inspection, management of change and safe work practices ensure that the measures installed will be effective.
Organisations must strive for harmonious alignment among their policies, procedures, and safe working practices to create a safe working environment.
Please join our webinar to learn more about effective strategies for implementing your process safety policies, procedures, and practices.
What you’ll learn:
This webinar is best for:
The Event
When: Thursday, 22nd June 2023 10:00 BST
Where: Online, just register for free HERE.
HSE Focus on Wood Processing Businesses And Their Dust Control Measures
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK has recently intensified its inspections of wood processing sites and has placed a particular emphasis on dust control measures. Although this current initiative focuses on dust for occupational health and safety, the associated dangers of fire and explosions from dust cannot be overlooked.
Wood dust particles, when suspended in the air in the right concentration, can ignite and cause an explosion if an ignition source is present.
The most effective approach for controlling combustible wood dust is to manage and control it at source. This can be accomplished by utilising Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) systems.
However, all exhaust ventilation systems have components which need to be correctly designed for the specific nature of the hazard. To specify a dust collector and avoid fire and explosion hazards, the flammable properties of your dusts must be characterised.
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We offer the following laboratory tests to aid you in assessing the potential for an explosion and to select and design suitable LEV systems.
DSEAR/ATEX Assessments: The Challenge of Identifying Unknown Hazards
Risk assessments are crucial tools employed across various industries and disciplines to identify, evaluate, and mitigate potential hazards. However, one of the greatest challenges faced during risk assessment is identifying all and every potential hazard.
DSEAR/ATEX reviews are required, like all risk assessments, and will only be as effective as the people undertaking the work. Like chairing/facilitating a HAZOP, often the best reviews are led by independent people, unbiased by overexposure to the process site but experienced in identifying both known and unfamiliar hazards.
Although DSEAR and ATEX legislation are relatively simple concepts, they can quickly become very complicated. There may be multiple systems and processes that are intricate and interconnected, making it challenging to identify all potential hazards.
There may also be a range of unknown unknowns that lie beyond current awareness, making them nearly impossible to account for in the original assessments.
From our experience completing DSEAR/ATEX reviews for many clients, items that weren’t picked up previously included:
Identifying all potential hazards is a significant task, but if a hazard is forgotten or not identified, no safety measures can be put in place to protect or manage that hazard.
To learn more about when to undertake DSEAR/ATEX reviews, you can watch our previous webinar on demand HERE.
Resources Library
Learning from our Process Safety Experts
To access our repository of technical articles and on-demand webinars, providing a wealth of insight into mitigating fire and explosion risk, check out our website resources page.