News

When it comes to protecting people and plant from highly flammable compounds, attention is usually focussed on inflammable liquids such as solvents and other petrochemicals. However, dust and ultra fine powders can pose a very real threat in terms of fire hazard and have been the cause of many deaths around the world in industrial environments.

Back in 2008, 14 people were killed and 38 others were injured when dust exploded at a sugar factory in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, reported back in 2012 that 130 employees had lost their lives in a period of just over 30 years. During the same period, it reported that 800 more people had been injured due to dust and fine powder fires and explosions.

As a particle progressively becomes smaller, its specific surface area increases, which accelerates its combustion, and hence, the quantity of energy liberated. Second, it is much easier to form a cloud of fine particles with air, and this also facilitates their combustion and flame propagation. When considering all the particles in a standard size bag of flour, for example, it is estimated that the total surface area is an incredible 340 square metres.

Anyone who has studied basic grade chemistry will know that the three essentials for a fire to start are fuel, oxygen and of course a source of ignition. Many fine powders can act as the fuel for the reasons outlined above, and of course there is a plentiful supply of oxygen given the fact it’s a main constituent of air, essential for life. So that leaves the third essential, a source of ignition. It is for this reason that two European directives have been introduced to control potentially explosive atmospheres. There are different directives for various environments.

ATEX Zones 21 and 22 are specific to hazardous dust environments, such as those in the coating sector and the food industry as outlined above.

In a hazardous dust environment, an ATEX Zone 21 is classified as ‘a place in which an explosive atmosphere in the form of a cloud of combustible dust in the air is likely to occur occasionally during normal operation’. On the other hand, an ATEX Zone 22 is classified as 'a place in which an explosive atmosphere in the form of a cloud of combustible dust in the air is not likely to occur in normal operation but if it does occur, it will be present for a short period of time only’.

Whether the danger is for a prolonged period, or for a limited short period, the directives call for electrical equipment to meet stringent standards. Clearly, it only takes one spark form a piece of electrical equipment to cause a major industrial catastrophe, hence the inclusion of the ATEX 22 directive that address the shorter periods of time.

Teledyne FLIR are pleased to announce that their new FLIR Si2x series of acoustic cameras are certified for ATEX zone 22, ensuring safe and effective condition

monitoring in hazardous environments. There are significant benefits of using the FLIR Si2x in explosive vapour environments.

Why Use an Acoustic Camera?
The FLIR Si2x acoustic imaging camera accurately detects extremely small leaks in compressed air systems and other gaseous environments. At a distance of 10 metres the cameras is capable of detecting leaks as small as 0.05 litres per minute. With real-time leak size and cost estimates, you can make quick, informed repair decisions to maintain efficiency.

Faster and More Accurate Detection
Traditional leak detection methods can't match the speed and accuracy of the FLIR Si2x. In addition to detecting compressed air leaks it efficiently quantifies leaks in industrial gases such as, ammonia, hydrogen, CO₂, methane, helium, and argon. The camera's mechanical fault detection mode also identifies and measures potentially faulty bearings, keeping your equipment in top condition.

Speeds Up Audits and Requires Minimal Training
Designed for ease of use, the FLIR Si2x allows you to quickly scan large areas without disrupting operations. Its intuitive interface requires minimal training, making it accessible to all team members and ensuring comprehensive safety audits with minimal downtime, and without the need for hot working permits. This facility means that any inexperienced or new member of staff can conduct an inspection with ease, allowing more experienced and senior members of the team to continue with other pressing issues.

To find out more about the Si2x-LD and the Si2x-PRO acoustic camera and other instruments in the Teledyne FLIR range please contact your local agent or your FLIR distributor.

www.flir.com

The British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF) is urging buyers and wearers of PPE to review their PPE stock and replace old and damaged items after a member survey showed outdated and poorly maintained personal protective equipment (PPE) is in use across UK workplaces.

The survey of BSIF members, made up of manufacturers and distributors of PPE who frequently visit workplaces across the UK, highlighted the prevalence of substandard products in use in Britain’s workplaces. The findings emphasise the urgent need for employers and workers to prioritise PPE evaluation and renewal as they prepare for the year ahead.

The survey highlights a worrying trend in the state of PPE and safety equipment across industries. Examples include:

• Hi-Vis not so visible: Many workers are using high-visibility clothing that is so dirty or worn that it no longer meets safety standards or functions as intended
• Damaged helmets: Safety helmets with severe wear and tear are said to be a common sight in UK workplaces
• Ripped clothing: Poorly maintained and ripped clothing are in regular use
• Defunct respiratory protection: Members frequently came across examples of disposable respiratory protection that should have been replaced still in use

Other insights from the survey:
• Cost over compliance: Respondents noted that buyers often prioritise cost over fit and performance, leading to the use of non-compliant products that compromise safety.
• Misuse and poor fit: Issues like workers wearing PPE incorrectly—such as helmets dangling loosely or gloves not being secured properly—pose significant risks to their effectiveness.

Commenting on the findings of the survey, BSIF CEO Alan Murray, says: "It’s not enough for PPE to simply meet basic standards—it must be maintained and fit for purpose at all times to ensure worker safety. As one of the survey respondents highlighted the misconception that 'any PPE is good enough' is a dangerous mindset that leads to preventable injuries."

As 2025 gets underway, the BSIF is calling on organisations to make a New Year’s resolution to thoroughly review and refresh their PPE stock. Employers and safety professionals are urged to ensure their equipment is compliant, well-maintained, and fit for purpose. Only source PPE from responsible suppliers such as BSIF Registered Safety Supplier who are committed to selling only certified PPE and safety products that perform to claims made.

The BSIF will release its latest findings around non-compliant PPE and safety equipment at the beginning of February 2025. The federation will also be turning up the focus on the essential role of PPE in 2025 with their ‘PPE Saves Lives’ campaign to launch in the spring.

For more information on how to improve PPE safety standards in your workplace, visit: www.bsif.co.uk

The national regulator for health and safety in Great Britain today (1 January) celebrates its 50^th Anniversary.

Created by the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was officially launched on 1^st January 1975.

For the last 50 years it has played a central role in reducing workplace death and injury, helping Great Britain become one of the safest places in the world to work. In 1974, 651 employees were killed at work; HSE’s latest annual statistics for 2023/24 show that number had reduced to 138.

Sarah Albon, chief executive of HSE, has said that despite the transformation of Britain’s workplaces over the past half century, the mission of the regulator remains as relevant as ever.

Sarah said: “Over the past half century, the Health and Safety Executive has led the way in establishing Great Britain as a safe place to work. As we look ahead to the next 50 years, we recognise there is still much for HSE to take on.

“We’re proud of our successes over the last five decades, but the fact remains that any work-related death is a tragedy, and there are still far too many workers suffering ill-health brought about by work activity.

“In 2022, we launched our 10-year strategy, Protecting People and Places, to build on HSE’s strong foundations and address our current and future challenges.

“So today, HSE’s role goes beyond worker protection to include public safety assurance on a range of issues. Recent years have added new responsibilities, such as becoming the appointed Building Safety Regulator and playing an extended role in chemical regulation, post Brexit.

“It is hard to foresee what the world of work will look like in the next 50 years but as ever, our fundamental principle will continue to be to make sure that those who create risk, take responsibility for controlling risk, and those who fail to do so will be held to account.

“We will continue to work with businesses, with industry, with other regulators and with government, to enable strong economic growth, while we continue to deliver our founding principles as we work to protect people and places.”

Minister for Social Security and Disability,  Sir Stephen Timms, said: “I’m delighted to wish a very happy 50th anniversary to the Health and Safety Executive.

“Over the last half-century this organisation has been at the heart of efforts to protect people and places across Britain: I would like to thank them for this vital work.

“As we support more people to get into work through our Get Britain Working White paper, and as we move to strengthen protection for workers, their mission will be as important as ever – now and long into the future.”

www.hse.gov.uk

The Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Sarah Albon has been recognised in the New Year’s honours list.

Sarah has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Bath for her services to the public sector.

The honours are given by the King and recognise achievements of people from across the United Kingdom.

Sarah Albon said: “It is a great privilege to have been awarded a CB in the King’s New Year’s Honours list.

“I’m proud to be a civil servant working on behalf of the public, and proud of the teams I lead. I have been very fortunate to work with dedicated and talented colleagues throughout my career and I see this award as testament to their achievements as much as my own.”

Chair of the HSE Board Sarah Newton added: “It’s a pleasure to work with Sarah Albon who over the past five years at HSE has led the organisation through significant challenges and change.

“Since becoming Chief Executive of HSE in 2019, Sarah has provided outstanding leadership, implementing major initiatives of national significance, protecting people and places. I’m pleased to see this award rightly recognise Sarah’s contribution, both here at HSE and in her roles across the Civil Service, and I am delighted to congratulate her on this achievement.”

Sarah joined HSE in 2019 and led the organisation’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prior to HSE, Sarah was Chief Executive of the Insolvency Service. Before that, she worked for the Ministry of Justice and its predecessor departments.

www.hse.gov.uk

Hart Door Systems has completed several contracts for its brand leading Speedor Storm door for a number of sectors across the UK.
Ranging from leading manufacturers to an international airport, multiple orders for Speedor Storms have been reported.
"In addition to a rise in demand for the Speedor Storm high-speed door, we have also delivered eight ATEX comprising four fire shutters and four insulated shutters for a wind turbine project," says Gordon Kipling, Hart's Northern Sales Manager. "Orders for Speedor Storms range from two to eight doors. It has been a remarkable level of activity."
Hart’s Speedor Storm is a wind-resistant high-speed industrial door ready for anything the weather can throw at it. "It is an exceptional door for use in factories, warehouses, storage facilities, indeed for any kind of plant operation that must be open frequently for people and traffic," adds Mr Kipling."Wind resistance for the Speedor Storm is up to ‘wind class 5’ as defined by DIN EN 12424. This means that it can withstand winds of up to 70mph for large external openings up to 8m x 8m."

www.hartdoors.com

The Enerpac ECS-Series Cutter Spreader combination tool features powerful jaws that can cut and spread, bringing a versatile and simple tool to industrial customers.

Two Tools in One
With a 30cm maximum aperture, the powerful spreading jaws apply five tons of force to quickly open workpieces and expose the internal parts of vehicles, appliances and other industrial equipment. A pair of large blades grip and cut through extensive sections of sheet metal and similar materials, streamlining and accelerating the cutting operation. Whether recycling appliances, removing impediments or cutting materials down to size, the Enerpac Cutter Spreader combination tool is the ideal tool to access required parts and get the job done.

Easy to Use
The Cutter Spreader combination tool is an innovative and simple design that offers both cutting and spreading action in a single plug-and-play tool without the need of pumps, hoses or batteries. The tool only weighs 15 Kg and features a rotatable head for optimal positioning of the jaws on the workpiece. A large control knob positioned directly at the front of the handle makes it easy to activate the jaws, regardless of how the tool is positioned.

Fast and Powerful
The Cutter Spreader combination tool's wide aperture blades are able to grip and cut a large variety of work pieces within two to three seconds. Unlike typical spreading tools that deliver only one ton of spreading force, the powerful ECS-Series tools generate over five tons of force to get the job done fast and with ease.

For more information on the Enerpac ECS-Series Cutter Spreader tool, visit www.enerpac.com.

Industrial clean air specialist Filtermist Limited will be showing two of its latest innovations on stand F245 at Southern Manufacturing 2025. The UK manufacturer will be launching a brand-new mobile stand for its larger Filtermist oil mist filters, as well as showcasing an A.erity 10-30 oil mist collector from sister company Absolent AB.

The new portable stand is designed to make it simple to move a Filtermist oil mist filter to wherever it’s needed and is ideal for use on grinding applications when used with a cyclone pre-filter. The height of the stand also makes it easy for the Filtermist unit to be serviced and maintained – helping customers comply with Working at Height Regulations 2005.

Josh Palmer, Product Manager for Filtermist, elaborates, “We work closely with our key customers to identify how we can improve our product offering. As well as being perfect for any applications where enhanced flexibility is required, this new mobile oil mist extraction solution is also ideal for customers that would like to trial a Filtermist unit before committing to a permanent installation.”
Filtermist will also be showcasing an A.erity oil mist filter at the Farnborough show for only the second time since the new product’s launch in 2023. Key Account Manager Simon Harkis, comments, “The A.erity range from Absolent is relatively new and additional models are still being introduced. The current product line-up includes filtration units with airflows from 500-4,000m3/hr, capable of handling particle loads from 5-70mg/m³. With the modular design of the A.erity range this maximum airflow can be increased further to 12,000m3/hr using multiple units driven by one controller.
“A.erity units include multiple filtration stages with a HEPA filter as the final stage, and thanks to Absolent’s patented Catch&Release filtration media and energy efficient EcoDrive technologies, A.erity offers users up to 8760 hours of maintenance free operation.
“We have installed several A.erity units for customers across the UK and they are being very well received. Absolent also offers its A.Smart IoT monitoring solution - allowing customers to check the performance of their Absolent units from any location via an easy-to-use dashboard which can be accessed from any internet enabled device. This is a big plus for companies with multiple machines where keeping downtime to an absolute minimum is critical.”
The Filtermist team will also be reminding show visitors that it manufactures Kerstar industrial vacuum cleaners, including ATEX rated models available with a choice of compressed air or electric power. The Southern stand will include a KEVA 45H with carbon fibre kit and a KAV15 – the smallest model in the Kerstar range.
Visitors to the stand can also learn about Filtermist’s comprehensive Aftermarket division which offers spares and consumables, servicing and maintenance, and COSHH compliant LEV testing throughout the UK.
Please visit the team on stand F245 to discuss how Filtermist can support with effective extraction for oil mist, dust, fume and smoke, or go to www.filtermist.co.uk to find out more about all of the products and services available for UK manufacturers.

Mike Meen, Technical Director at Bureau Veritas, assesses whether the traditional two-dimensional approach to risk is adequate in today’s complex society, and highlights the importance of organisational maturity and resilience in hazardous environments.

The traditional two-dimensional risk model sees probability weighed up against consequence, predicting the likelihood of a risk occurring and the severity of the outcome. The problem with this model, particularly in potential hazardous environments and industries, is that it undermines the influence and importance of organisational maturity.

The 10^th edition of Deloitte’s Global Risk Management Survey found that amongst organisations with mature risk management processes, 66% were more likely to achieve their objectives, and have a 30% lower likelihood of experiencing critical incidents compared to companies with low-risk management maturity. In addition, mature organisations demonstrated stronger regulatory compliance, with 85% of mature organisations reporting fewer regulatory breaches, compared to just 55% of less mature ones.

Since the Deloitte report, McKinsey's 2023 research found only 50% of organisations feel well-prepared to handle external shocks like economic volatility and geopolitical instability, reflecting a significant gap in organisational resilience. Moreover, two-thirds are struggling with complexity and inefficiency in their structures, highlighting the need for more agile and mature systems to better manage risks and disruptions​.

Plant, Procedures, People

In today’s complex society, where technology and artificial intelligence are becoming as sophisticated as people, many organisations can become too reliant on their equipment.

Industries and plants operating in the chemical, manufacturing, nuclear, or oil and gas sectors work heavily on both physical equipment and control logic – particularly safety and environmentally-critical equipment (SECEs) whose sole purpose is to mitigate a potentially hazardous spill or explosion occurring. Although condition monitoring is now sophisticated on these items, it’s vital that ‘people’ are also considered as an additional layer of consideration, otherwise businesses can open themselves up to that third dimension of risk.

In all industrious environments, employees will have the ability to override the machines and controls in place and launch an essential shutdown. The key is ensuring those employees are trained, competent and prepared.

If a piece of plant equipment malfunctions, the next port of call is the business’ procedures and its people. As such, training is vital.

Embedding resilience into the organisation

It is the environment that a person works in that either supports or inhibits action. It is the application of appropriate processes that prevent or mitigate undesirable events; and ultimately, it is the people and their behaviours that are the source of compliance or ignorance to due process.

Training in risk and resilience doesn’t necessarily mean having to learn about lots of individual elements; it simply means understanding how to be situationally aware.

It’s important to note that organisational maturity cannot be achieved overnight, and isn’t simply the culmination of a set of company rules for employees to follow. It comes from time and investment in navigating each stage of maturity, ensuring operational and process excellence is embedded into the culture of the business.

Bureau Veritas is a leading testing, inspection and certification company offering workplace health and safety consultancy services and training. For further information, please visit https://www.bureauveritas.co.uk/.

National Grid Electricity Transmission is the latest company to join EEMUA as a corporate member.

National Grid Electricity Transmission is a business unit within the wider National Grid Group. It develops, owns and maintains the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales. The system consists of approximately 4,500 miles of overhead line, over 900 miles of underground cable and over 300 substations.

EEMUA and National Grid Electricity Transmission have well aligned objectives in terms of safety, the environment and operating performance. The sharing of good practice across different industries and global regions afforded by engagement in EEMUA will help support National Grid Electricity Transmission in the safe operation of its physical assets as it looks to connect more and more low carbon electricity to the network – crucial in helping the UK achieve its net zero ambitions.

The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association

EEMUA has released Edition 4 of EEMUA 191, Alarm systems – A guide to design, management and procurement.

Since it was first published in 1999, EEMUA 191 has become the globally accepted and leading guide to good practice for all aspects of alarm systems.

The new edition has been comprehensively updated and restructured to improve ease of use. The terminology has been aligned to that used in the latest editions of the standards and the opportunity has been taken to include new material on alarm management for remote sites.

Alarm systems form an essential part of the operator interfaces to large modern industrial facilities. They provide vital support to the operators by warning them of situations that need their attention and have an important role in preventing, controlling and mitigating the effects of abnormal situations.

EEMUA 191, developed by the users of alarm systems in industry, gives comprehensive guidance on designing, managing and procuring an effective alarm system. It is intended to help in improving existing systems and in developing new facilities during plant construction or during alarm system refurbishments. Both of the international standards for the management of alarm systems for the process industries, ISA 18.2 and IEC 62682: 2023, are aligned with EEMUA 191.

EEMUA 191 is primarily concerned with alarm systems provided for people operating industrial processes. These include alarm systems in industries such as chemical manufacture, power generation, oil and gas extraction and refining and others. However, much of the guidance is generic and with appropriate interpretation can be applied in other sectors. The guide has been used successfully as a basis for training in the rail and transport sectors, in the nuclear industry, and elsewhere.

www.eemua.org