Emergency response procedures

All companies, including FPT Foods, are required to have an emergency environmental response plan that addresses the three vital areas of environmental hazard emergency management:

• control – ensuring the situation doesn’t get worse. This might involve turning off a valve or tap to stop flow, stopping a pump to cease flow, stopping a production process to stop a leak or standing a drum up to stop leakage through a hole
• containment – which may include such actions as forming a dam of absorbent material around liquid to stop spread, blocking drains to stop flow, using soil or sandbags to stop flow ‘downstream’, transferring liquid to another container, moving a container to a secure bunded area
• clean-up – which may involve recovering any reusable product, disposing of unusable material in a safe manner, disposing of clean-up residues and soiled materials such as rags, mops and sand, cleaning any containers used and replenishing or replacing equipment in the emergency spill kit.

Everyone hopes they never have to deal with a chemical spill, but if the situation does occur it is critical that you know what to do. The spill might be a small one, for example, a container of printer ink or solvent spilled in the packaging area or a major acid leak, bulk silo or tanker. You need to know how to handle an emergency situation. What you will do depends on the nature of the substance (solid, liquid or gas), the amount of spill, the degree of risk to human health and safety, both long and short term, and the potential for damage to the environment, both long and short term.

The key to responding to an emergency is to think about all the possible things that could go wrong (everything – even very unlikely situations), plan what to do (your response), and then practise what you would do (actions).

Practising emergency responses assists by:

• training people in what needs to be done, when and by whom
• reducing the risk to people
• ensuring correct equipment is used and correct procedures are followed
• minimising environmental harm
• reducing the possibility of legal liability by increasing safety and demonstrating due diligence.

It is part of your responsibility in the workplace to be on the lookout for situations that may be potentially dangerous. It should be part of your daily work practice to identify and record potential hazards to both health and safety and the environment.

Major spills

Major spills of bulk storage chemicals will be handled by the emergency response team. Most of us will not be involved, although we may have to participate in an evacuation procedure. We therefore must know how to recognise the evacuation alarm and know where to assemble and to wait for the ‘all clear’ before returning to work.

Chemical disposal

It is important that correct procedure for the disposal of chemicals is followed so the effects on the environment are eliminated, or at the very least minimised. Disposal methods will vary according to the nature of the chemical, its concentration (strength), volume and whether the chemical has been neutralised.

For specific details of how each chemical in your workplace should be disposed of, read the relevant SOPs, OH&S manuals, MSDS and product labels.

Incident reporting

After any product or chemical spill, the company should look at the lessons that can be learned from the incident, particularly actions that could be taken to prevent or reduce the chance of it happening again. An Incident Report records details of what happened and the action taken to clean up. The incident report may be useful if future problems occur and may be used to demonstrate ‘due diligence’ (to show that correct procedures were followed).