Page 27 - Occupational Health & Safety, October 2019

Although the dangers of hazardous chemicals should never be minimized, properly trained employees ... should be comfortable cleaning up incidental spills.
and DOT regulations and has had more than 100 articles published on a variety of EHS topics. She is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP,) Walkway Auditor Certificate Holder (WACH,) Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainer, hazmat technician, serves on the Blair County, PA LEPC, and has completed a variety of environmental, safety, emergency response, DOT and NIMS courses, including Planning Section Chief. She has conducted seminars at national con- ferences and webinars for ASSE and other national organizations. She can be reached at 1-800-468-4647 or karenh@newpig.com.
absorbents, paper towels or whatever else is appropriate for the area and the types of liquids that spill in it. Keeping these items in a kit or in a designated area that is well- marked will help employees to remem- ber where the items are located whenever they’re needed.
When absorbent materials are used to clean up small spills, consider where the employee will put the spent materials after they’ve cleaned up the spill. Include bags, buckets, or containers with the spill re- sponse materials so that whatever has been used to clean up the spill can be easily re- moved from the area.
Responding Safely
Although the dangers of hazardous chem- icals should never be minimized, properly trained employees who have been taught about the specific hazards of chemicals that they work with every day should be comfortable cleaning up incidental spills. They should also be able to do it without having to don excessive personal protec- tive equipment (PPE), sound alarms, or evacuate everyone in the facility. (These could all be indicators that the spill is an emergency and should be left to HAZ- WOPER trained responders.)
For incidental spills, response tech- niques include the following: evaluating whether the spill is incidental or an emer- gency, donning basic PPE if they are not already wearing it, containing and cleaning up the spill, decontaminating the area and removing spent spill response materials, and reporting the spill so that spent materi- als can be restocked.
Human nature can certainly play a role in employees’ comfort levels. Some may be willing to tackle spills larger than they should handle, while others may be reluc- tant to clean up anything more than a few ounces. Providing specific guidance based on the risk assessments performed on the chemicals present in each work area can help keep everyone safe when responding.
Incorporating incidental spill response techniques into HazCom training and stan- dard operating procedures helps to keep employees safe during response. It also
helps them to confidently address inciden- tal spill situations with the tools and knowl- edge to get the job done quickly.
Karen D. Hamel, CSP, WACH, is a regula- tory compliance professional, trainer, and technical writer for New Pig. She has more than 22 years of experience helping EHS pro- fessionals find solutions to meet EPA, OSHA,
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