When storing chemicals in your workplace, safety is of the utmost concern. While there are many best practices to follow, something that can make a large difference to the security of your business is having a restricted chemical storage area. Only allowing certain, trained personnel to come into contact with your chemical storage cabinets can exponentially decrease the risk of accidents in the following ways:
- Reduces Mishandling Risk
By only allowing authorised personnel access to your chemical storage cabinets, you can greatly reduce the risk of chemical mishandling, which is the largest contributing factor to chemical incidents. Having a restricted storage area allows you to ensure only those knowledgeable about the stored chemicals and their risks enter. Moreover, it enables you to be certain those entering are fully trained in your workplace’s best practices for handling and storing chemicals.
- Makes Evacuation Easier
Limiting the amount of people entering your chemical safety storage means evacuation runs more smoothly if an incident occurs. Not only does this prevent the area from being crowded, meaning employees can evacuate faster, it also ensures that there are less people to evacuate. Moreover, it allows you to ensure those authorised to enter the chemical storage area are trained in the proper evacuation methods.
- Reduces Vehicle Traffic
Restricted chemical storage also safeguards against accidents with warehouse traffic, such as forklifts or other vehicles. As you know, shock sensitive chemicals are extremely volatile, and have dangerous reactions when subjected to sharp movements or falls. In warehouses, where there may not be sufficient room to manoeuvre, this can happen all too easily. Ensuring only authorized personnel can operate machinery and vehicles within the storage area means they are aware of the risk of bumping against the chemical storage cabinets, and are qualified to conduct any necessary chemical spill control.
- Controls Chemical Movement
By restricting the number of employees entering your chemical safety storage, you can better control the movement of chemicals throughout your workplace. This allows you to ensure only trained personnel are able to move the substances from their storage area, once again reducing the risk of chemical incidents. To better protect both your workplace and workers, it’s advised to keep a log, declaring what chemicals are being moved where, and by whom.
If you’d like to find out more about protecting your business from chemical incidents, get in touch with our team today for obligation free advice. If you require more information surrounding the best practices for storing chemicals, read our previous blog posts.