Essay On Safe Storage

The safe storage of hazardous goods such as chemicals is an essential part of an environmental, health and safety program. Hazardous goods and chemical storage facilities has to comply with certain minimum safety standards to satisfy different authorities which include Local Authorities, Health and Safety, Fire Department and a few others.

Safe storage begins with an always up-to-date inventory of hazardous material to ensure all staff are aware of the dangers in the warehouse or storage facility. An accurate inventory is also necessary if emergency personnel are to respond effectively to a fire, explosion or chemical release in the area. The business can be fined if it does not provide an inventory to emergency response personnel and appropriate regulatory authorities.

The annual review of the hazardous materials inventory is a prime opportunity to clean out and dispose of any unwanted goods. All hazardous material must be clearly labelled for the benefit of current users, emergency personnel and future users. It is important to ensure all labels are legible and in good condition. It is important to repair or replace damaged or missing labels. Figure: checking the labels and the hazardous level of stored goods

Materials should always be segregated and stored according to their chemical family or hazardous classification. Hazardous

Each chemical family should be separated from all other chemical families by an approved non-combustible partition or by a distance of 6+ meters. Ideally, each hazard class would be kept in a cabinet or on a shelf segregated from other hazard classes. Incompatible chemicals within the same hazard class should also be separated from one another. For example, both nitric and perchloric acids are incompatible with organic acids (such as acetic acid) and should not be stored