Safex Newsletter No.80 May 2024

Welcome to the 80th SAFEX Newsletter. A third of the year has already sped past and SAFEX has been very busy serving the industry.

  • GPG 12 has been completed and posted on our website : English version - Spanish version
  • Webinar 6 – Management of Change – was successfully hosted by EPC Groupe and an article by Thierry Rousse explains the outcome of the Webinar in this Newsletter.
  • A new eLearning Module in Conjunction with ENAEX in Chile, ‘Why we need to do Periodic Hazard Studies on existing plants’ has been developed and now been launched on the SAFEX website.
  • The date and place for the SAFEX Congress XXI was pinned down: Please note this important event, hosted by ORICA, in your calendar.
  • A new GPG on Management of Change is under preparation. The development of an ESP eLearning Module is well advanced, which will also result in the update of the current ESP GPG on the Website. Work has also been initiated on an Explosives Security GPG.

The global explosives industry plays a crucial role in various sectors, including mining, construction, and military operations. However, working with explosives also carries significant risks, which is why safety measures are of utmost importance. SAFEX International is a leading organization dedicated to promoting safety within the explosives industry. With our expertise and resources, we provide training programs, guidelines, and support to ensure that companies and individuals adhere to best practices when handling explosives. By partnering with SAFEX International, businesses can enhance their safety protocols and minimize the risk of accidents or mishaps. So, whether you're a seasoned professional or new to the field, SAFEX International is there to assist you in maintaining a safe work environment while maximizing efficiency and productivity.

I hope with this Newsletter that SAFEX manages to assist you to improve your safety offering to our industry !

Executive Summary Newsletter 80

As Chairman of SAFEX International, I am proud to share the work product of our CEO Luncheon that we had in Salzburg, Austria one year ago. We created the attached document to demonstrate our commitment to improving safety in our industry through the SAFEX organization.

Since that day we have shared, discussed and received support from other CEOs who were unable to attend. The list of signatures of member companies is a true testament to the commitment that we all have towards sharing incidents, learnings, high potential near misses and general safety knowledge.

Thank you all who have committed to making SAFEX a more active and effective organization for our industry.

John D Rathbun

 

Safety message from Joakim Westerlund, CEO of the Forcit Group

Ensuring a safe work environment and prioritizing safety, not only of our employees, but the environment in which we operate isn't just a responsibility; it's a commitment that must start from each and every person in a leadership role in our industry. A personal commitment to safety sets the tone for the entire organization. When leaders prioritize safety, they not only protect their employees but also cultivate a culture of accountability and trust. It's not just about policies and procedures; it's about a genuine dedication to keeping everyone safe. I believe that safety can only genuinely be first priority if it has a true personal meaning.

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Salzburg Manifest

As Chairman of SAFEX International, I am proud to share the work product of our CEO Luncheon that we had in Salzburg, Austria one year ago. We created the attached document to demonstrate our commitment to improving safety in our industry through the SAFEX organization. Since that day we have shared, discussed and received support from other CEOs who were unable to attend. The list of signatures of member companies is a true testament to the commitment that we all have towards sharing incidents, learnings, high potential near misses and general safety knowledge. Thank you all who have committed to making SAFEX a more active and effective organization for our industry.

John D Rathbun

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Braamfontein Explosion, 1896

The incident information that gets reported to SAFEX is collected in the SAFEX database. It is a gold mine of information about past incidents and readily available for SAFEX Members to access. With almost 1,000 incidents captured in the database, it provides a richness of information that is difficult to equal. The other remarkable fact is that those incidents date back almost 100 years. In 1896 an explosion occurred in the Braamfontein Station. It happened in South Africa, our own backyard so to speak. Let’s take this tragedy as the subject of our case study.

Presentation given at the NIXT Conference #77, South Africa on 26 October 2023.
Boet Coetzee

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Culture, the hidden hazard that should not be underestimated

Culture is a rather broad term that typically refers to a large and diverse set of mostly intangible aspects of social and work life. The general agreement is that culture consists of the values, beliefs, language, communication, and practices that people share in common and that can be used to define them as a collective.

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Parameters to Improve Transportation Safety

The DEP has identified that to improve transportation safety the age of the fleet must be addressed, and modern technology should be applied to transportation. The DEP proposes a layered approach on technology, processes and people to reduce the probability of accidents and security incidents. This layered approach was the result of a study that was carried out on past incidents during distribution.

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Explosives Basis of Safety – BOS

Today many SAFEX members will never have had experience - directly or indirectly - of a serious explosives incident and hopefully never will but if you do you will never forget it and it will change you. The implementation of a BOS programme will help ensure you do not need to suffer such an incident to treat explosives operations with the respect they require.

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New eLearning module available

A new eLearning module with the title "Why we need to do Periodic Hazard Studies on existing plants" has been developed and now been launched on the SAFEX website. This incident and its learnings are a good example of how periodic safety assessments such as Periodic Hazard Studies can help identify and correct potential safety gaps in process design or of process conditions.

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PFAS

You have probably heard of per- and poly-fluoro alkyl substances (PFAS), but to date this newsletter has not covered the topic and the potential impact to the explosives manufacturing industry. A caveat to start – this is a very involved topic with passionate arguments being presented on all sides and one article cannot present all points and opinions.

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Revelations from  an "old" audit carried out on a facility where Pyro compounds were being handled.

It is always useful to reflect on findings from previous audits and those from other facilities and then, from these, to assess whether there has been an improvement in one’s own operations. When delving into an archive containing historical audit documentation, the following was revealed and it made me wonder how many operational areas out there, may have similar deviations that were captured in this audit. The operational details relating to the specific operation have been edited but the audit findings are very real !

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Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace and Workforce

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing focus by Australian workplaces on creating mentally healthy work environments. There have been recent changes in the Australian WHS regulatory environment around formally managing psychosocial hazards and risks, with the key catalysts for this shift being several high-profile reports, including the ‘Review of the Model Work Health and Safety Laws’ by Marie Boland in 2018/2019 (the Boland Review) and the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report in 2020.

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Tyre Fires on Vehicles

Western Australia has had three such fires on ammonium nitrate or Ammonium Nitrate Emulsion vehicles in the past two years. One fire transitioned to detonation. This then begs the question: What other dangerous goods (or non-dangerous goods) are being lost to tyre fires that spread to the load on those delivery routes ? Truck fires of non-dangerous goods don’t normally make the news unless they are on a major arterial route. However, a dangerous goods vehicle going on fire, even on a remote mine delivery route is usually newsworthy. However, there is rarely news of diesel fuel tankers going up. Or LPG tankers. Or corrosives. Or cyanide. Or explosives.

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