Safety Management Principles for Fertilizer Production Sites

Fertilizers Europe has established 10 principles for good safety management practices in production and storage. They are:

  1. All sites should have a high standard of housekeeping.
  2. All sites should establish annual safety targets with action plans (what, who, when).
  3. All sites should have a safety committee comprising the site manager and members reflecting all levels of the organization. All employees should participate in safety meetings on a regular basis.
  4. All jobs should be evaluated with respect to safety, and a job safety analysis should be carried out for those jobs that are considered critical. Critical jobs should be described in job procedures, including the prescription of the use of any special personal protective equipment. Employees should be trained accordingly.
  5. A preventive maintenance system should be in place
  6. Modifications of process systems and process equipment should be approved based on a systematic review.
  7. For all special work, a work permit system should be in place
  8. An approval system for contractors should be in place.
  9. All accidents and near misses should be reported and investigated, with the subsequent implementation of corrective actions.
  10. All sites should have an emergency plan. This plan should be tested at least once every year. The plan should be developed in cooperation with external emergency services.

For the above principles to be successfully implemented, total commitment of support from the line management is imperative.