To store any fuels or oil at an industrial site the site owners need to follow stringent rules so as to avoid the spillage of these substances into the surrounding environment.

Following the Oil Storage Regulations 2001 can help sites make arrangement for what they need to do to comply with the current law, with the one main prerequisite that they use some sort of bunded storage tank to store their liquids in.

A bunded storage tank contains a bund or a second skin which will collect any of the stored liquid should the primary containment vessel fail. This means that if the contents were to leak they would not affect the surrounding environment as they would all be collected. The bund in a bunded tank is usually 110% the capacity of the original tank, so there’s more than enough room for all the tank contents.

Bunded storage tanks are manufactured from steel or polypropylene and can be used to store fuel oil, chemicals or waste liquids.

There is a wide range of different bunded tanks available online, in various capacities. If you talk to a tank specialist they will be help you find a bunded tank for your specific application.

An unnamed woman has suffered eye injuries after a chemical spill at an industrial estate. The Health and Safety Executive were alerted to the spill which happened last Thursday afternoon and are investigating the cause and nature of the incident.

Police were called to the incident at the Dalcross Industrial Estate and set up a 200m cordon around the site. Fire fighters wearing chemical suits then cleaned up the spill of the toxic chemical using specialist spill collection equipment including absorbents and chemical neutralising agents.

The woman was taken to Inverness Hospital suffering from exposure to ammonia and injuries to her eyes.
A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive said:

“We are aware of the incident and are making initial inquiries.

“A decision will be made as to whether to launch a full scale investigation.”

Local residents were advised to stay away from the area until the spill was cleaned up and the road to Inverness Airport from Ardesier was closed while the spill cleaning operation took place.

Fire crews always have specialist spill collection equipment at their disposal including booms, absorbents and neutralising agents.

One of the safest ways to store any type of liquid at an industrial site is in an Intermediate Bulk Contrainer (IBC). IBCs can be transported around site and can be fitted with filling nozzles and discharge pumps so that the liquid can be used from them when needed, making them a popular choice.

Due to the fact that IBCs are easy to transport it makes the likelihood of a spill from them a little greater than a fixed liquid storage tank. Because of this, bunded IBC stores are commonly used in tandem with the containment device. Bunded IBC stores prevent damage to the surrounding area if the IBC were to leak and can be used both indoors and outdoors.

Larger bunded IBC stores are available in types which completely enclose the IBC and feature things such as lockable roller doors or sliding doors. Some are even capable of holding up to 24 IBCs so that storage of these containers becomes very easy indeed.

Bunded storage is essential when a liquid may possess a spill risk to the environment. The bund collects any liquid spilt from the container and holds it until it can be pumped away. Most application specific bunds are capable of holding around 110% of the total liquid contained within the storage device they are designed to protect.

Chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie has just reported details of a soap that responds to magnetism. An international team has been working on the new soap, which when dissolves can be removed using a magnetic field. With further development the product could find extensive use in applications such as the cleaning up of oil spills.

The soap contains iron atoms, which are easily removed by magnetism. This means that anything dissolved by the soap will also have these iron particles attached. In essence the scientists have found a way to add the iron atoms into the molecules so that the soap droplets formed were attracted to a magnet.

Julian Eastoe, the co-author of the publication from the University of Bristol spoke to BBC News. He said:

“If you’d have said about 10 years ago to a chemist: ‘Let’s have some soap that responds to magnets’, they’d have looked at you with a very blank face,”

“We were interested to see, if you went back to the chemical drawing board with the tool-kit of modern synthetic chemistry, if you could…design one.”

Research into the soap is still at the laboratory phase, but now the principle has been uncovered huge steps in the progress of the material are expected.

Disinfectant mats are commonly used at many industrial and agricultural sites to make sure the soles of a person’s feet are disinfected before entering a quarantined area. They work by having a disinfectant fluid in the mat which is applied this to the soles when a person walks across the mat.

Being easy to transport between areas on site or between venues makes disinfectant mats an excellent idea at auction houses or when administering animal foot care products. There is also no need to dig a pit to sink the mat as the mat simply fits over a flat surface and the disinfectant material is contained within the mat.

There are many different sizes of disinfectant mats available, which can contain different volumes of liquid. Large mats can hold around 50 litres of disinfectant and can be held to the ground by ropes or pegs.

Disinfectant mats can be used many times before they need to be replaced and the durable material used on the mat surface can take a great deal of wear and tear.

There are also bespoke disinfectant mats which have been manufactured in varying lengths, so car or truck tyres can be disinfected when they are driven over the mat.

There are countless types of liquids used every day at an industrial site and whilst some of these liquids may be harmless others may need more stringent controls to enable their safe usage.

If a person at site is frequently using small quantities of these liquids at any given time, one of the best ways to store the liquid is to use a safety dispending can. Safety dispensing cans are small liquid containing devices which hold and dispense the liquid safely each time it needs to be used.

Bench liquid cans

Liquid dispensing bench cans use a spring mechanism which when pressed down dispense a quantity of liquid onto a rag or cloth. The lid on the can stops vapours from being released and acts as a fire arrestor if the liquid is of a flammable nature.

Plunger liquid cans

Plunger cans can be operated using one hand and dispense a metered amount of liquid with each action. The dasher plate on the can works as a flame arrestor, whilst also allowing easy refilling of the can.
Both bench cans and plunger cans are available in different sizes and so capable of storing different volumes of liquid.

A crop spraying tanker was punctured whilst in transit earlier this week, spilling around 3,000 litres of herbicide into the surrounding environment.

The incident, in Compton, Newbury, warranted an environmental spill response team from the Environment Agency attending the spill site to assess the damage. When the sprayer had been punctured the liquid leaked onto the road and then flowed into a nearby ditch threatening the nearby River Pang.

A spokeswoman from the Environment Agency confirmed:

“We received a call this morning about a crop sprayer tank which had been punctured whilst in transit. Our environment officers attended the scene and saw that approximately 3,000 litres of herbicide had run across High Street and into a dry ditch by the side of the road.”

The tanker was owned by the nearby Institute of Animal Health (IAH), their spokesperson, Nancy Mendoza, commented:

“This morning a quantity of herbicide spilled from a crop-sprayer and was contained on the road and within a ditch at the bottom of Churn Road in Compton.

“The Institute is working with the Environment Agency to minimise any potential impact of this spill, which was quickly halted from further spread thanks to the rapid actions of staff.”

One of the most useful spill containment and collection devices when dealing with spills on open water is the absorbent boom. Absorbent booms and containment booms can collect spilled oil and stop it reaching protected areas. These types of booms can also be connected together to form a barrier of unlimited length.

Spill containment booms

Spill containment booms can be used in an emergency spill situation on land or in water. They may not be able to absorb the spilled substance but they can stop the spilled substance reaching unaffected areas. Some containment booms are inflatable, so can be stored easily then deployed quickly in the event of an emergency spill situation.

Absorbent spill booms

Absorbent booms are the perfect spill containment and absorption solution when a spill occurs at sea. Marine booms can stop oil on the water’s surface reaching protected areas and can actually repel the water they float on, while at the same time soaking up and hence collecting the spilled liquid.

Booms are an essential part of a spill response kit and can be used to great effect on land or in open water.

This year, most of the UK has not yet seen the harsh weather conditions witnessed over the last two years. However, it is not yet February and it is not uncommon for hazardous conditions to strike over the coming months.

When a cold snap takes hold, snow and ice can make working conditions hazardous for those who have to work in an outdoor environment. And if not dealt with hazards such as snow and ice can cause serious problems for the workforce.

All employees should be provided with a safe environment in which to work, but ice and snow can compromise this safety. This is why it is important to have enough de-icing equipment at your disposal to deal with the icy conditions when needed.

Bags of grit, snow shovels, grit spreading hoppers and grit storage containers are all things which need to be kept at a site where workers may have to work outdoors. And even if the stock you have is not used this year, there’s always next year to think about and these items can be used year-on-year to make the workplace a safer place to be.

Many sites now realise the importance of having spill kits located around the site to deal with emergency spill situations. However, some of these sites don’t realise the importance of conducting a regular audit of their spill kits to check the contents are complete.

Most sites will have a supply of absorbent materials which can be used on a day-to-day basis by operators and maintenance staff. These absorbents can be pads, wipes or rolls of material which can be used to wipe up drips or spills during maintenance activities. The spill kits at these sites should thus be left to tackle an emergency spill. However, in some situations the contents of a spill kit may be used instinctively to clean a spill when standard absorbents would ordinarily suffice.

It is therefore important to check the status of all the spill kits you have in case any part of the kit has been used this way.

Some industrial sites use audit covers or proof of use tape over their spill kits so that they can see if any of the kit has been used. This makes it easy to check and replace the contents of the kit.

If some of the absorbent materials have been used from a spill kit there is no need to buy a new kit. Replacement stock for your spill kits can be bought from suppliers at the fraction of the price of a completely new kit.