Risks are everywhere on hazardous worksites.
From noxious gases and chemical spills to fires and falling equipment, the remote worker can face a formidable number of dangers as he goes about his job.
And as you can imagine, when an accident or emergency does arise on a hazardous work site, every second counts.
In minutes, a treatable injury can become a fatality, a minor incident can snowball into a major disaster, and a spark can become a raging fireball.
That means that if you have workers on a hazardous site, you need to be on top of your safety game if you’re going to keep them safe and sound.
Here’s how you can do just that.
The Law
When it comes to hazardous work sites, many of the same laws that apply to less hazardous locations apply.
The two main pieces of workplace safety legislation you need to take into account here are:
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA): This law is foundational in UK health and safety, establishing a general duty for all employers to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of their employees “so far as is reasonably practicable”.
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR): Regulation 3(1) of these regulations stipulates that “every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work.”
However, the law doesn’t stop there as far as hazardous sites are concerned.
That’s because hazardous sites often house volatile and combustible materials, which the law wants to ensure are stored, handled and used safely.
Two main pieces of legislation relating to these hazardous and explosive materials are important here:
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002: Seeks to protect workers from the health risks of dealing with hazardous substances, especially chemicals, dusts, fumes, and biological agents.
- Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR) 2002: Implements the EU’s ATEX 137 Directive into UK law and is enforced by the HSE. Notably, it stipulates that worksites housing dangerous materials classify the site into zones, based on the likelihood and duration of an event occurring.
Zoning
The zoning outlined by the DSEAR is a central pillar of the UK’s approach to dealing with the hazardous work sites.
DSEAR employs ATEX’s two broad zonal categories to classify areas by the likelihood of explosive atmospheres:
Gas, Vapour, and Mist (Flammable Atmospheres)
- Zone 0: Explosive gas atmosphere present continuously or for long periods.
- Zone 1: Likely to occur occasionally during normal operations.
- Zone 2: Unlikely to occur; if it does, only briefly.
Dust (Combustible Particles)
- Zone 20: Explosive dust atmosphere present continuously or frequently.
- Zone 21: Likely to occur occasionally.
- Zone 22: Unlikely, and only briefly.
Hazard Map
It’s all very well identifying danger zones, but no use if workers aren’t familiar with them and can’t spot them quickly and easily.
A hazard map is a handy visual tool that allows them to do just that.
The map provides a handy schematic of where the various danger zones and hazards in a company can be located, allowing them to act accordingly and use the correct safety equipment when working there.
Safety Kit
Traditional lone-worker safety equipment works well in most work environments, but in extremely dangerous and hazardous work locations, it’s simply not up to the task.
In these cases, workers need an ATEX or now UKEX-standard handset and safety technology to stay safe.
UKEX is slowly replacing the EU-wide ATEX standard, but it is essentially the same thing.
Look for ATEX 2014/34/EU-compliant equipment or UKEX-certified equipment from a company like ANT Telecom.
This will ensure that your equipment and communications devices use only inert, ruggedised materials, which is imperative if the worker is asked to work on a hazardous site where volatile or explosive materials are used or stored.
Conclusion
All remote work can be risky, but in really hazardous work locations, the danger is ramped up to ten.
It’s possible to mitigate these risks, but familiarity with the law and adopting the correct equipment is a must if workers on hazardous sites are to be kept safe.
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