Choosing The Best Spill Kit For Your Chemical Store
Companies that handle potentially hazardous materials and liquids have a responsibility to maintain a healthy workspace for their employees and protect the environment against any adverse effects of their work. Hazardous materials, including solvents, fuels, oils, coolants, or industrial chemicals, could be unsafe for your employees or the environment if a spill occurs. In the event of a chemical spill, make sure you are prepared to contain and clean it as soon as practicable to avoid additional damage.
Chemical spill kits, or Hazchem spill kits, provide you with all of the tools you need to effectively clean up your workspace and avoid penalties or fines resulting from the incident. Think about what types of spills your company could encounter before choosing a spill kit, so you have the suitable tools on hand to address any unexpected spills.
Things You Need to Know Before Choosing a Spill Kit
What Kinds of Fluids Does Your Company Have On-Site That Could Leak?
The right spill kit for your business depends on a few key factors: what liquids does your company work with? How large are the spills that have the potential to put your team at risk? Where are they stored?
Some examples of potential spills in different work environments include:
- Chemical manufacturers that use and store industrial chemicals
- Office spaces that use industrial cleaning products
- Mechanics that keep new and used fuel and oils
- Companies that use and store paint or paint thinners
- Farms that use pesticides or other agricultural substances
Depending on the type of chemicals you work with and the size of your potential spills, you will need different types of absorbents to adequately clean spills. Consult your supplier to learn the best absorbent for the chemicals that may leak or spill at your company.
Know Your Obligations For Protecting Against Chemical Spills
You should have a spill prevention plan to address potential chemical spills if your company handles hazardous liquids. The Work Health and Safety Act of 2011 gives guidelines that businesses must follow to maintain their workplace safety. The Act requires businesses that use, handle, store, or generate potentially dangerous chemicals to:
- correctly mark all hazardous chemicals
- keep a record of all hazardous materials on the premises
- maintain Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) about all onsite hazardous chemicals
- provide training and education to employees
- contain the spill risk of hazardous chemicals
- have a spill prevention plan and personal protective equipment (PPC)
To stay compliant with workplace and environmental regulations for hazardous chemicals in the workplace, you should have tools on-hand to mitigate the risks of a chemical spill. Chemical spill kits can keep you prepared in case of an emergency and prevent you from facing regulatory fines and penalties for noncompliance.
Consider the Chemical Classification
The composition of the chemicals that your company works with affects the type of absorbents you need in your chemical spill kit. Generally, you can group hazardous chemicals into two classifications; Non-aggressive chemicals (coolants or agricultural chemicals) and aggressive chemicals.
Especially in the case of hazardous spills, using the wrong type of absorbent can lead to more significant problems like dangerous fumes or fire. It’s best to contact your kit supplier to confirm the type of absorbent you need for your chemical spill kit.
What Quantities Are You Carrying?
It’s essential to choose a spill kit that is big enough to handle the size of the biggest possible spill you might see at your company. An uncomplicated rule of thumb is to have a spill kit on hand at least the same size as your largest liquid container.
Document the types of spills you could encounter and supply your company with enough chemical spill kits to meet all potential spills. You should have a spill kit of the appropriate size that you can use for any potential spills that may arise, which means you should have more than one spill kit onsite. You should refresh your spill kit after each use to make sure you are prepared when a new issue arises.
Chemical spill kits come in several sizes to meet your needs for the biggest spills you might experience. Evaluate the size of the spills you need to protect yourself against to choose a big enough spill kit to meet your needs.
What Your Chemical Spill Kit Contains Depends on the Chemicals You Use
Chemical spill kits put together all of the tools needed to contain and thoroughly clean hazardous spills. Paired with a chemical absorbent that absorbs chemicals safely, these tools that make up a chemical spill kit help cover all of your bases in the event of a chemical spill emergency.
- Mini Booms: Place mini booms around the perimeter of your spill to contain the spill and prevent the liquid from expanding.
- Safety Gloves and PPE Equipment: Safety gloves are an essential item of personal protection equipment required when handling hazardous liquids.
- Sorbent / Absorbent Pads: Hazchem chemical absorbent pads are made with polypropylene fibres and are specially treated to absorb hazardous spills.
- Disposal Bags: Disposable bags allow for the safe disposal of all contaminated items.
- Spill Response Instructions: All Ecospill chemical spill kits come with a step-by-step instruction card that walks individuals through the procedure for mitigating spills.
Now that you know what to look for in your company’s suitable chemical spill kit, your next step is to develop an emergency response plan for potential spills. Consult your kit supplier to go over the options for the specific substance you want protection for to make sure you choose the correct absorbents in your spill kit. Ecospill offers a Spill Response Training program for teams who handle hazardous liquids at work.
Contact Ecospill at 1300 736 116 or leave a message on our website to ask us any questions you might have about chemical spill kits!