Dangerous substances
Page 18
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I NOTICED in CM, August 20, under the heading "Police concern", a brief mention of a meeting to be held in September between the Police, the Health and Safety Executive and the EEC Commmission to discuss "the problems posed by overturned tankers containing explosive or toxic substances".
The objective of this meeting is evidently to consider optimum methods of handling such incidents in order to minimise the risks involved.
While noting that scheduled explosives are not in fact carried in road tankers, there are nevertheless a large number of dangerous substances permitted for such transport under the 1981 Tanker Regulations.
The chemical industry has been closely involved in the preparation of these regulations, which incorporate measures originally introduced by the industry on a voluntary basis covering: — Emergency information (transport emergency cards) — Driver training — Vehicle design and construction — Vehicle marking with hazard warning panels The last item on the above list is of major importance to the meeting due to be held since hazard warning panels provide the link between the emergency services and the Chemical Industry Scheme for Assistance in Freight Emergencies (Chemsafe).
The Chemsafe system, whereby specialist advice and assistance is made available to the emergency services by the chemical industry, will no doubt be adopted as the basis of the discussion at the forthcoming meeting. The chemical industry has built up years of experience in operating Chemsafe and its maintenance and development is supervised by a Panel on which the police, fire and ambulance services as well as the chemical industry are directly represented.
As a result of the control — whether statutory or developed by British industry — backed up by the co-operation provided by the Chemsafe system, incidents of overturned chemical tankers have been few and their effects mitigated. I believe that your readers should have this information as a necessary amplification of the brief report mentioned above.
B. WHITTAKER Senior Executive/Distribution Chemical Industries Association