Articles
Safety on the inside By Nigel Plumb, director David Plumb &Co There are two huge sources of pressure on all those involved in decommissioning refuelling sites – safety and the environment. Many companies see these as opposing forces and feel they are being pulled in two directions by equally urgent issues. It can, even, sometimes seem that two different environmental concerns will oppose each other. You cannot, for example, remove pollution from a site without
creating
noise,
dust
and
vibration. Whenever there is an apparent conflict
between
environment,
safety
most
and
the
responsible
companies, ourselves included, will always come down on the side of safety; but we believe there is no real conflict. At the beginning of 2006, we began a continuing campaign to address the issue of industry safety and quality, with the aims of: · Ensuring contractors maintain the highest levels in staff training, safety of staff and members of the public, and all areas of environmental exhibitions to further our case.
concern.
While we want to spread the word to · Ensuring customers have a way of knowing the company they are dealing with is working to these highest levels. · Providing
a
guide
to
potential
customers to enable them to ensure all
quotes
they
receive
from
contractors are comparatively based with due consideration to safety and the environment.
used press releases, worked with trade magazines on feature articles, and used any opportunities at seminars and 48
inside the tank and scrub it by hand.
the wider industry, the first thing to do is,
Many people say that it is safer to jet
of course, ensure that we operate to the
wash from the outside, but we believe
highest standards ourselves – and that
that this does not remove all the
is what I hope we do, but we do not see
contamination and you are left with
why that should compromise our
gallons of contaminated water to deal
environmental credentials.
with. As long as you take the right
One of the biggest areas of dispute at the moment is over the method of actually cleaning tanks before they are taken from a site for recycling. We believe it is essential that, when a tank leaves a site for which we are
To further this campaign we have
to ensure that happens; to actually get
responsible it should be as free of contamination as we can make it, and certainly safe to handle at a recycling site. In our view, there is only one way
precautions, have the right training and use the right equipment, working inside the tank can be carried out as safely as working on the surface. Working this way our people are protected, the environment is protected and the people further down the line who have to handle the metal from the tanks are protected. There is no need to choose
New APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507
between
safety
and
the
