Preventing a chemical spill in your workplace is one of the most crucial considerations when looking at HAZCHEM safety. Due to the toxic, corrosive, flammable or reactive properties of dangerous goods, even small amounts of a spilled chemical can cause major health and safety issues for organisations. If you’re carrying multiple chemical products in your workplace, spillage can become an even bigger risk as incompatible hazardous chemicals can react with each other. This can result in a wide range of incidents from fire to dangerous gas emissions. If you’re storing large quantities of chemicals in the outdoor environment, spillage could quickly spread to private or public places, affecting the air quality of nearby buildings, creating a fire or explosion risk, or contaminating soil and water sources. However, there are some simple steps that you can take if you’re serious about preventing a chemical spill in your business.
In this blog, we’ll be highlighting how streamlined purchasing, good housekeeping, and regular site inspections and safety audits can combine to help you improve HAZCHEM safety at your site.
REMEMBER: Under the WHS Act, an uncontrolled chemical spill or leakage is classed as a dangerous incident. The Regulator in your state or territory must be notified in writing as soon as possible after a chemical spill.
One of the easiest ways to reduce your spill risk is by taking a good look at your chemical ordering process. An effective chemical management program will have streamlined purchasing procedures.
To achieve this, make sure that you build solid relationships with your chemical suppliers and aim to keep stocks as low as possible. As quantities of hazardous chemicals increase, so does the potential for leaks and spillage.
When you’re dealing with larger volumes of hazardous substances during a spill, there will be a greater volume of air-borne contaminants. Due to the emission of hazardous vapours and gases during such an incident, the flammable zone will also widen — increasing the likelihood of the vapours meeting an ignition source.
Chemical spills involving flammable liquids will increase the risk of hazardous vapour emissions and ignition.
A chemical supplier who is willing to deliver smaller quantities more often enables you to minimise the stocks you hold in your chemical stores.
Your purchasing program should have procedures to ensure:
WARNING: We often see in the chemical safety audits we conduct for our clients, stacks of chemical containers left outside or piled up next to pallets and chemical stores. Many of these clients have already invested in the correct chemical safety cabinets and bunded pallets, but a breakdown in their purchasing and delivery procedures has created an unnecessary spill hazard.
One of the most effective ways to prevent chemical spills is to use secondary containment equipment when storing and decanting your hazardous chemicals.
Secondary containment, otherwise known as chemical bunding, can either fully encapsulate the original container or sit underneath. The bunding is designed to effectively contain any chemical leaks or spills which may occur during usage or storage.
To comply with Australian WHS legislation and safety standards you should consider:
However, you should keep in mind that chemical stores and bunded pallets aren’t going to be effective if they’re overloaded past their maximum chemical capacity. They also won’t act as an adequate hazard control measure if they’re not used or maintained properly.
The provision of spill kits, spill bunding, bunded chemical storage, decanting and handling equipment is essential for site safety.
To make sure that your equipment continues to provide risk reduction for your organisation, you should create safety procedures for correct housekeeping practices, including the following:
WARNING: One the most unnecessary hazards we identify during chemical safety audits are bunds being overloaded or used incorrectly. We’ve seen stacks of hazardous chemicals left sitting on the ground while non-hazardous substances are stored on the bunded pallets. This issue could be easily rectified with suitable training and supervision.
While you may have reviewed your chemical ordering practices and maintained your secondary containment systems, you must continue to review your worksite if you want to achieve ongoing compliance and safety.
We highly recommend conducting regular site inspections and safety audits, so that you can reduce spillage risk in your organisation. Your safety audit should evaluate the potential for chemical spills from both a macro-level and micro-level perspective.
REMEMBER: An uncontrolled release of flammable, corrosive or toxic gases under pressure can be just as dangerous as a liquid chemical spill. Compressed gases are considered hazardous chemicals as well as Dangerous Goods and must be considered in your risk assessments for chemical spills.
At a micro-level your site inspections would regularly review the integrity of chemical containers, safety cabinets and under-pallet bunding.
Check for:
From a macro-level, your chemical audit would take a wider look at the quantities of hazardous chemicals kept in certain areas. It would note work practices — or plant and machinery that’s in close proximity to chemical stores — that could damage containers or impact/penetrate your stores.
Your audit checklist might contain trigger points and flags for:
REMEMBER: Part of the audit process should be looking at the ways in which work practices, as well as plant and machinery, can increase the likelihood of hazardous spillage.
As we’ve detailed in this blog, there are 3 simple and easy ways that you can reduce risk with a spilled chemical in your workplace. Preventing spillage is not only an important part of your HAZCHEM safety program, but a legal obligation under Australian law.
To find out more about protecting your business from chemical spills, you can download our FREE eBook. We highlight the hazards that are associated with chemical spills and offer some expert advice on the steps you need to take to prevent chemical spills in your own workplace.