Major Hazards

The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmosperes Regulations 2002 (DSEAR).

These regulations implement two European Directives: the safety aspects of the Chemical Agents Directive 98/24/EC (CAD) and the Expolosive Atmospheres Directive 99/92/EC (ATEX 137) on work involving hazardous chemical agents and explosive atmospheres.

The primary purpose of DSEAR is to protect the safety of workers and others who may be at risk from dangerous substances that can cause a fire, explosion or similar energy-releasing event, such as a runaway exothermic reaction.

The essential requirements of these regulations are:

• To identify dangerous substances used on-site.
• To assess the risk from use of those dangerous substances.
• To eliminate or reduce risk associated with the dangerous substances.
• To classify places in the workplace where an explosive atmosphere may occur into hazardous or non-hazardous areas.
• To define arrangments to deal with accidents, incidents and emergencies.
• To provide information, instruction and training.
• To identify hazardous contents of containers and pipes.

Our general approach to demonstration of compliance with DSEAR is to complete a risk assessment, gap analysis and action plan. The risk assessment informing the level of risk to be managed enabling the gap analysis to be completed which in turn enables the development of a proportional risk based action plan for filling gaps.