Duty of Care Requirements in the Explosives Industry

Submitted by Anonymous on Monday, 3rd October 2016
Explosive Dust

Occasionally, incidents and near misses occur at explosives and munitions manufacturing facilities which, despite rigorous safety processes, are unforeseen within the daily working environment. 

This is not to say that safety is lapse, more so that workers are not always trained or experienced to analyse the wider implications of working with explosives beyond their immediate task

The risk to health and property is always present in an explosives handling environment: safety must be at the root of any process or change of process and any incident is of course a risk to business continuity and profit.  All employers have a Duty of Care to workers, managers and shareholders alike.

At ISSEE, we understand the risks involved and we can provide specialist advisory services to evaluate and recommend process changes to aid the mitigation of risk. This may be a cross-process review or a specific analysis of near misses, such that they will not manifest to a more serious incident. Our service is discreet: we will not relate any investigation or analysis to third parties or as case studies outside your organisation should you prefer. This is not to hide the seriousness or potential of an incident, but to give you confidence that your business IPR is safe with ISSEE. This advisory service can be developed to support your periodic safety assessments and reviews of workers’ competency to undertake explosives related tasks.

ISSEE is recognised both nationally and worldwide as a respected and academically accredited training organisation.  As part of our advisory services, we can offer training in a range of courses from Explosives Foundation through to Explosives Manufacturing Workers, Supervisor and Managers.  Specialist courses are also offered for Range Workers, Storage Workers and Firing Officers, including range disposal of misfired or unwanted ordnance and explosives. All explosives training courses are delivered to UK National Occupational Standards and successful students are also offered a one year student membership of the IExpE; a vehicle to record continuous professional development (CPD)  and a stepping stone towards professional Chartered Engineer status should they so aspire.

As HSE will advise, formal, accredited training, CPD and ongoing mentoring is an important measure towards establishing competency.

Contact us for more details.


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