Are you storing Class 3 Flammable Liquids and Class 8 Corrosive Substances? Whether it’s in the lab, a manufacturing facility or a workshop, all businesses that carry incompatible dangerous goods must implement and maintain the correct risk control measures. For incompatible substances, such as flammable liquids and corrosive substances, there are certain steps that you can take to reduce the risk that these chemicals pose to your staff, property, community and the environment. If flammable liquids and corrosive substances are mixed, or they are brought into the same work area, there is a real danger of these incompatible substances reacting with each other. This can result in a chemical reaction which may produce a range of hazardous by-products.
To help you understand how to store incompatible substances in a safe and compliant manner, this blog will lead you through the chemical segregation requirements. We’ll also be detailing safe storage options for flammable liquids and corrosive substances.
Applying Segregation With Chemical Storage Cabinets
If you don’t have the space available inside your dangerous goods store to segregate Class 3 Flammable liquids and Class 8 Corrosive substances by at least three metres, you can overcome this problem by investing in separate chemical storage cabinets. Chemical storage cabinets will allow you to safely store each class of dangerous goods, without the need of segregating the dangerous goods by three meters. Hazardous chemical storage cabinets are designed to provide adequate segregation when storing different classes of dangerous goods. Indoor hazardous chemical safety cabinets also allow you to store dangerous goods in an efficient and organised manner. These two practical features make chemical storage cabinets the prefered options for storing incompatible classes of dangerous goods in a safe and compliant manner.
What Are The Segregation Requirements?
When dealing with the issue of chemical segregation in the workplace, the Australian Standards provides industries with precise guidelines on the safe storage of dangerous goods. these requirements are in full conformance with the Australian Work Health and Safety (WHS) Regulations.
AS 3833:2007 details the requirements for the storage of mixed classes of Dangerous Goods.
The Australian Standard that sets out the minimum requirements for the storage and handling of mixed classes of dangerous goods is AS 3833:2007 - The storage and handling of mixed classes of dangerous goods. This standard contains a dangerous goods segregation chart that outlines how the different classes of dangerous goods must be stored to reduce the risk that they pose upon the workplace.
The dangerous goods segregation chart explains that:
“When Class 3 Flammable Liquids and Class 8 Corrosive substances are stored in the same store, they must be segregated by at least 3 metres”
Do I Need To Conduct A Dangerous Goods Risk Assessment?
If you’re storing mixed classes of Dangerous Goods, you have a legal obligation to ensure that your workplace is following safe and compliant practices which conform to WHS Regulations. Therefore, it’s important that you carry out a dangerous goods risk assessment on your current dangerous goods store.
You must conduct a risk assessment to ensure you’re meeting your compliance obligations.
A risk assessment will allow you to correctly identify all the substances in your workplace. In particular, if you are storing flammable liquids and corrosive substances, your chemical risk assessment will identify each chemical that’s a Class 3 Flammable Liquid and all those that are classified as Class 8 Corrosive Substances.
You can quickly access the dangerous goods classification of each chemical that’s onsite by referring to the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) of each product. Once you have identified all of these hazardous substances, you must ensure that your Class 3 and Class 8 chemicals are stored in a compliant manner — with the required 3 metres segregation.
Incompatible chemicals must be stored apart so a dangerous chemical reaction will not occur.
However, if you find that these incompatible substances are not separated by the required distance, the chemical stores must be rearranged to comply with this regulation.
Quite often, busy workplaces simply don’t have the available space to segregate dangerous goods as per the recommendations in the Australian Standards. This is one of the key reasons why dedicated chemical storage cabinets are a preferred method of storage for dangerous goods.
How Can You Apply Segregation With Chemical Storage Cabinets?
Whether it’s impractical to take up excessive floor space, or you require superior protection for your chemicals, choosing to segregate Class 3 Flammable liquids and Class 8 Corrosive Substances in separate chemical storage cabinets is a safe and compliant option.
Safety cabinets offer chemical segregation for incompatible substances.
Hazardous chemical storage cabinets are designed with a range of features to specifically suit the chemicals that are being stored. These features act as risk control measures, helping your business avoid incidences such as fire, explosion, chemical burns, asphyxiation and environmental damage.
Safety cabinets that are manufactured to meet Australian Standards offer:
- Adequate chemical segregation for businesses with mixed classes of dangerous goods
- A durable, long-term chemical storage solution
- Easy access for staff who are handling chemicals
- An organised and efficient space for storing dangerous goods
- Unique design and construction features which reduce risk for that particular class of dangerous goods
To fully understand the benefits of using chemical storage cabinets for chemical segregation and safe storage, we must look at the unique features of each cabinet type.
Flammable Storage Cabinets
If you decide to use a chemical storage cabinet to store and segregate Class 3 Flammable Liquids from your Class 8 corrosive substances, the cabinet must comply with design specifications outlined in AS 1940:2017 - The storage and handling of flammable and combustible liquids.
The flammable cabinet must be constructed from a non-combustible material. It must feature double-walled sheet steel construction to insulate the flammable liquids that are stored inside the cabinet from heat in the event of a fire.
The cabinet’s insulative properties temporarily protects the flammable liquids within the cabinet from igniting. This 10-minute window of time allows fire crews to be called and gives your workers time to escape any fire that may occur in your workplace.
Other design requirements for flammable storage cabinets include:
- Any gaps between the doors and the walls must be sealed to prevent the spread of flames and heat radiation.
- Any materials that are critical to the structural integrity of the cabinets construction must not melt at temperatures below 850℃
- If the doors of the cabinet are fitted with a device that keeps them open while in use, the device must automatically release at temperatures exceeding 80℃
- The doors of the cabinet must be self-closing, closing fitting and held shut by at least two catches
- The cabinet shall be designed so that any spills that may occur inside the cabinet are directed into the sump of the cabinet.
- Any shelving inside the cabinet must be perforated to allow for free air-movement
- The base of the cabinet must form a liquid-tight sump with a depth of at least 150mm. The sump should be designed in such a way that packages of flammable liquids are prevented from being stored inside it
To ensure that everyone in your workplace is aware of the potential hazards associated with the flammable liquids stored in your workplace, it’s important that you display safety signage.
For workplaces that carry multiple classes of dangerous goods, there is always the added risk of incompatible substances being brought within a short distance of each other. Therefore, the visibility and continued maintenance of your dangerous goods signage is crucial for keeping your staff, supervisors, contractors and visitors safe.
The dangerous goods signage requirements for flammable storage cabinets are shown below:
Class 3 - Flammable Liquids
No Smoking No Ignition Sources Within 3 Metres
Corrosive Substance Storage Cabinets
Corrosive substances must be stored in a chemical storage cabinet that complies with the design specifications outlined in AS 3780:2008 - The storage and handling of corrosive substances. Corrosive storage cabinets must be constructed from a corrosive resistant material or lined with a corrosive resistant coating.
Other design requirements for corrosive storage cabinets include:
- Self-closing, close-fitting doors that hold shut by catches at two or more points
- Doors that cannot be opened inwards and which can be opened from inside the cabinet
- Perforated shelves to allow for free air-movement
- The base of the cabinet must form a liquid tight sump that is at least 150 mm deep and capable of catching any spills that may occur inside the cabinet
If the corrosive substances that you are storing are very acidic, such as sulfuric acid, they must be stored in a corrosive storage cabinet that is constructed from a non-corrosive material such as high-density polyethylene.
Weaker corrosive substances may be stored inside a metal corrosive storage cabinet that has been lined with a corrosive resistant coating.
However, all corrosive storage cabinets must a be labeled with a Class 8 dangerous goods diamond to ensure that everyone in your workplace is aware of the corrosive substances that are stored inside the cabinet.
An example of a Class 8 diamond is shown below: 
Are You Storing Incompatible Substances?
Thanks for reading our blog on how to store flammable liquids and corrosive substances in a compliant manner. As we’ve detailed above, there are many dangerous goods which are incompatible, and they must be stored to meet the segregation requirements of the Australian Standards. As Class 3 Flammable Liquids and Class 8 Corrosive Substances are incompatible chemicals, it’s vital that you make sure that they’re segregated properly in your workplace. Any failure to do so may result in violent chemical reactions which may harm people, property and the environment.
An easy way to segregate chemicals and keep them stored in a compliant manner, is by selecting a safety cabinet that’s been constructed to meet Australian Standards. If you’d like to find out more about this important topic, we have a free download that can help. Our dangerous goods segregation chart lists all the different classes of dangerous goods and explains the segregation requirements for safe storage. You can quickly access our free chart today by clicking on the below image.
