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Safex Newsletter No.81 November 2024

The year has sped past and in a months’ time we will be entering the year end Festive Season. For SAFEX International it was a busy year with a large number of initiatives worked on – some completed and some ongoing.

I attach a presentation given recently which provides a good overview of the work. If you want to part of these working Groups, please let me know and I will forward your details to the relevant leader.

As, in the past, I start this Newsletter with a SHE message from the CEO of a Member Company. The note this month confirms the commitment of Holger Riemensperger of AECI, a global company based in South Africa.

With the Basis of Safety page now active in our website Andy Begg and Paulo Siqueira explains the history of BoS as well as how to apply the information on the web page within the companies. To illustrate the global use of BoS andy included a presentation (in Spanish) by FAMESA on ERIC or FISH as we know it.

Ron Peddie from our Expert Panel presents a paper that describes the instrumentation of an Ammonium Nitrate plant and explains the variety of temperature trips and alarms.

The industry suffered two ANE Tanker Explosions in the last two years as well as an Ammonium Nitrate explosion 10 years ago. As road transport is critically important in our industry I place articles presented by Ken Price and Geoffrey Downs, both Expert Panel members, highlighting the learning from these incidents: Tanker Transport Explosions involving Ammonium Nitrate Emulsions and Angellala Creek Ammonium Nitrate Incident. Our latest GPG on ANEs should be read in conjunction with these articles.

Austin Powder submitted articles on Crisis Management after an incident in a HMX plant and a Licence to Supervise system which forms part of their SHES Leadership development.

ENAEX stresses the importance of safety during cleaning and decontamination of plant by using the basics as explained by the BoS and FISH Principles.

We take a nostalgic look at the past with a note from Mark Hardman, a Corporate Associate, on the History of the Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey. How things have changed !

The reporting of chemicals containing PFAS by companies, as required by the Environmental Protection Agency, is explained concisely by Dan Reinke an Individual Associate member.

I include 4 very interesting presentations from a recent NIXT conference in South Africa. The presentations coves a wide and interesting series of subjects and were presented by BME and AECI Mining.

Last, but not least Pedro Pereira introduces the first edition of BlastON, an annual publication dealing with SHE and other important subjects concerning explosives and blasting globally.

Basis of Safety (BOS) section on the SAFEX members website

By Paulo Siqueira and Andy Begg

Have you ever wondered about the story behind of the Basis of Safety? More importantly, how can you apply this essential framework within your company? Discover the initiatives some Safex members have embraced, along with insights into competency and good explosives practices. Explore these answers and more - through videos, documents, and expert resources - now available in the newest section of our webpage.

The purpose of this new section is to give members access to a library of BOS related files and documents that they may use locally. The files may simply be accessed out of general interest in BOS or perhaps by someone wishing to implement a new BOS programme or revitalise an existing programme.
The first BOS screen will appear as follows.

You can see that the module contains a number of folders (we can change these as required). For example, in BOS history there is a short description of why BOS was first developed by ICI Explosives – when you read this you will almost certainly be able to relate the situation in ICI at the time to times or issues in your own organisation. This was the “initiation” of the BOS programme. Since then, BOS has continued to be developed and is now an integral part the of the Safety Management System of several large SAFEX member companies.

If you then go back to the menu and click on BOS applications the following will appear.

For each folder when you open it there is a Word document giving a brief introduction and links to either individual files or to a series of subfolders with specific files. It all depends on how much information is in each main folder and whether it needs to be subdivided. Again, we can change this to suit. You may find that some folders are empty or there are files waiting to be added. Please be patient as this is a new system and requires information to fully populate it.

So far, we have loaded files from a very limited number of sources – thank you those who have contributed - but we desperately need all members to review the content of the module and offer files from their organisations that they believe will add to the value of the module to all members. In the files you will find single photographs of an obvious good/bad practice, videos of PPE testing, videos of explosions to show missiles/blast effects, video of plant incidents etc. So, we ask you for photos, articles, videos - to develop the module.

Each file you contribute could become a valuable learning tool. Your insights and resources will help shape this into a truly comprehensive repository for all.

We would hope members will browse the module if only to see what is there. It does contain a lot of very useful information. Many of the single photos may not have very descriptive titles but we are sure an interested viewer would be able to see the potential application of them as perhaps an illustration of something in a training programme. If you have any questions, you can ask us for clarification.

To illustrate the global use of BoS here is a presentation (in Spanish) by FAMESA on ERIC or FISH as we know it.

Our thanks to Ludovic Turlin, our webmaster, for guiding us through the structuring of the module and actual loading of the files.

Paulo Siqueira and Andy Begg


SAFEX International Registered office c/o Societe Suisse Des Explosifs,PO Box 636,Brig,CH 3900,Switzerland. (Tel): +41 27 922 7111 - (Fax): +41 27 922 7111		© safex-international.org 2019 Legal notices - Sitemap