Explosion Protection : Risk Assessment & Hazard Management in Manufacturing

With increasing pressures from an array of legislation and regulations, manufacturing organisations must today make a proactive effort in the development of health and safety policies and procedures. This paper explores a selection of issues encountered in modern system safety, with particular reference to explosion protection. Since 1974, when the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act was introduced, employers have been held responsible for the health, safety and welfare of their employees. 1988 saw the introduction of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations, and since then there has been a great deal of focus on dangerous substances and explosive atmospheres, giving rise first to the ATEX Regulations in Europe in 1996 and then the DSEAR Regulations in Britain in 2002. This paper gives a brief overview of a selection of current legislation before demonstrating the application of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002 (DSEAR) in a modern manufacturing facility.