Every industrial site needs to be adequately equipped with the right cleaning equipment. Keeping your working area clean and tidy will not only mean that you can concentrate on the job you have to do, it will also make the area free from potential trip or spill hazards.

Cleaning equipment at an industrial site will vary from simple sweeping brushes to industrial degreasing floor cleaners, and every industrial site should have a range of equipment at hand so employees can keep their work area tidy.

It’s not just the responsibly of the cleaners on site to pick up dirty rags or notice and clean spills, it’s the duty of every employee to make sure that if they notice a problem, they report it and deal with it.

If you have had a spill or a leak that has been cleaned up using a spill kit, you may still need to remove the residue from the floor surface. If you use an industrial degreaser on the area in question, you can remove the potential slip and trip hazard by making the area clean and also reduce staining of the area.

Some degreasers can be bought for a specific application such as removing oil or tar whereas others are more general purpose in application.

Good news for the spill response effort in the Gulf of Mexico. BP is going to use two unmanned wave-gliding machines which will monitor water and marine systems including:

• Monitoring the water quality including the amount of oil in the water, amount of phytoplankton and dissolved oxygen matter.
• The number of marine mammals.
• Weather data.

The vehicles will start monitoring the area after initial testing and will use solar power to power the electronics in the vehicles and wave power as a form of propulsion.

BP Gulf Coast Restoration Organisation spokesperson Mike Utsler stated:

“These vehicles will provide us a steady stream of data about water quality and should significantly increase the available data for ongoing research activity,

“We will initially deploy the Wave Gliders between the Macondo well and the shoreline, and look to expand from there in the future.”

The vehicles which have been designed by Liquid Robotics will pass their data via a satellite link to a real time monitoring station.

President and CEO of Liquid Robotics, Roger Hine stated:

“Initially we will be calibrating a set of nine optical sensors to monitor water quality, including trace amounts of dispersed oil, and will then add acoustic monitoring of marine mammal activity,

“We look forward to working with BP on this extended research program.”

Managing spills at an industrial site is an important part of a company’s health and safety mandate. And, as part of the process of managing spills, companies should thus have the right spill response products in place. It’s also important of course that staff who may have to deal with a spill are adequately trained and know what to do when a spill occurs.

Spills happen at inopportune moments and most people who have dealt with a spill and not had adequate training would always say they would have done something differently in their response so the clean-up operation was smoother.

As part of a spill response plan it’s thus important to not just have the right spill containment and spill clean-up products, it’s also important to have trained staff.

If you send employees on an accredited spill response course they will be better prepared to deal with any type of fuel or chemical spill you have on site. Some of the courses that are accredited by the British Safety Industry Federation don’t just cover what to do if you have a spill, they also discuss the relevant legislation involved.

A zoo in East Sussex is doing its bit for the Deepwater Horizon spill response, after staff and visitors donated their shorn hair.

Approximately 60 people had their hair cut at Drusillas zoo by Icon Stylist’s Jal Clarke. Jal launched his appeal in July when he learned that workers cleaning up the spill were using human hair in booms on the coastline. He had already visited the zoo last month to collect fleeces from llama and alpaca.

The now hairless people all had their hair cut for free by the stylist who is still on the look out for further hair donations.

Mr Clarke stated:

“We have had great support so far from Drusillas but we urgently need a lot more hair or fur for the oil spill catastrophe.

“The aftermath of the devastation this oil has caused has already destroyed so much sea life. We need to act fast for our future generations.”

Human and animal hair is a good collector of oil based fluids and as such can be used in booms ina spill response effort.

Spill response teams are still scouring the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, removing oil and tar balls that continue to wash up on shore.

Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams (SCATS) patrol the coastline every day looking for any new oil that may have found its way ashore. When oil is located, a spill control task force is deployed to the area to eliminate the spilled fluid.

Some of the teams are working day and night as part of the spill containment and response effort, with 17 teams currently patrolling the shores of the four affected US States.

Some teams have the benefit of using ‘Sandboni’ machines to scoop up any spilled matter found on the beach. The machines can cover up to one mile a day per machine and ‘skim’ the oil off the surface of the sand.

The spill response will continue as long as oil washes up on the beaches of the Gulf. BP are committed to cleaning the area and as well as using the SCAT teams, they are continuing to use hundreds of miles of booms and skimming vessels on the water surface that use ropes, rotating discs and belts to separate the oil from the water. The collected oil/water mix will be processed in the future and used for fuel.

You may have spill kits on site to cope with spills of various types of fluids, but do you have chemical neutralizing agents so you can treat the area where the spill occurred?

Chemical spill kits are really effective at removing the liquid from a chemical spill. However you may have to treat the area where the spill occurred to prevent damage to the environment or just to stop anybody coming into contact with the remains of the spill.

Neutralizing agents can be bought in three main types including:

• Acid neutralizing agent
• Alkali Neutralizing agent
• Bleach neutralizing agent

The above neutralizing agents can work in tandem with your already purchased spill products and can improve your spill response programme immensely.

Because neutralizing agents come in powder form they can be sprinkled on the spill area easily and they change colour (turn pink) when the spill is fully neutralized.

Most chemical neutralizers are safe to handle and environmentally benign, so will not cause further pollution to the environment. Make sure you read the instructions fully before use and if you have any questions regarding the neutralizing agent, you should contact the manufacturer or the supplier.

If you are the health and safety rep at an industrial site, you may need to be aware of the different types of absorbent materials available if you need to clean up a spill.

Absorbents come in many different types to cope with many different types of spills. From oil spills to spills of a chemical nature, there is an absorbent material that can be used to mop it up. Some absorbent materials can also repel water, so can be used at sea or in rivers and streams. These absorbents will only attract the spilled substance such as oil and hence will not become waterlogged reducing their effectiveness.

Absorbents come in types including:

• Absorbent pads
• Absorbent socks
• Absorbent pillows
• Absorbent granules
• Absorbent pads

Absorbent pads

Absorbent pads come in an array of sizes and are perfect to keep at various locations on site where there may be a spill. The pads usually come in easy to dispense boxes, so a single sheet can be taken as and when needed to mop up even the smallest spill.

The type of pads you choose will depend on the substance you are most likely to spill. You can get general absorbent pads, chemical absorbent pads and oil absorbent pads. They also come in different absorption capacities. Check the absorption volume per pad before you buy.

There seems to be no good news for BP at the moment, as the company has just had to deny claims that it is hiding data on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion.

The firm that owned the Deepwater rig, Transocean, has alleged that BP is not handing over critical information it needs about the explosion on the 20th of April this year.

In a letter sent to Barack Obama’s cabinet Transocean’s lawyer wrote:

“BP has continued to demonstrate its unwillingness, if not outright refusal, to deliver even the most basic information to Transocean.

“This is troubling, both in light of BP’s frequently stated public commitment to openness and a fair investigation and because it appears that BP is withholding evidence in an attempt to prevent any other entity other than BP from investigating,”

BP has steadfastly refuted the claims made by Transocean stating:

“We are disappointed that Transocean has opted to write a letter with so many misguided and misleading assertions, including the assertion that BP is ‘withholding evidence.

“We have been at the forefront of co-operating with various investigations commissioned by the US government and others into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy,”

Transocean has 249 lawsuits currently being filed against it for damages.

The news comes just hours after the claims that a plume of chemicals is still floating in the Gulf of Mexico and spill containment and clean-up operations still need further work.

One of the simplest forms of spill containment and capture devices is a drip tray. A drip tray can efficiently catch drips or leaks from any type of machinery and can so keep the surrounding area clean and safe for employees.

Some drip trays are especially manufactured for the specific purpose of catching drips and leaks. And others are manufactured so fluid storage cans or small drums can be placed on them. This means the area under the storage cans will not be contaminated as any spilled fluid will be collected.

Spill and drip trays can be bought in a huge range of sizes and in different materials. Some of the types available include:

• Polyethylene drip trays – up to 230 litre capacities
• Steel drip trays – up to 60 litres in capacity
• Polyethylene drum trays

Polyethylene drip trays are light in weight, so are extremely easy to handle and can be moved easily to different locations. And any of the above spill trays can be used in conjunction with absorbent pads, making the cleaning and use of the tray even easier.

If you have a pre-existing fuel tank at your industrial site, there may come a time when the tank will need to be replaced. You might even have a fuel tank whose bund has failed or just need to get it checked out to see if it is in a good state of repair.

Not many people realise that bunds can be refurbished. And bunds can be relined, removing the expense of buying a completely new tank.

Bund lining is a great solution for those people who don’t have room for a new tank or those whose tank is situated in a position where it is no longer able to be moved because of post-construction at the site. In cases of limited access, a bund liner is often the most cost-effective solution.

Some older bunds can also be relined using a GRP lining system to bring them in-line with current storage regulations. And lining is often much cheaper than the decommissioning and removal of your old bund and purchase and installation of a new bunded tank.

Any tank that many be suitable for refurbishment needs to have a comprehensive survey to find out its current condition. You just need to contact a company that specialises in bunded tanks to find out more.