When it comes to spill kits and spill control solutions for your business, won't it just be all right to have a heap of general purpose absorbents and general purpose spill kits scattered around the place?
Unless you happen to work with heavy machinery which leaks oil by the gallon, or you're working in laboratories which handle dangerous chemicals, can't most business get away with a general purpose solution?
It is certainly true that general purpose spill kits can handle a wide range of spillage problems, and can be a convenient solution. But when it comes to spill control, anything less than appropriate or suitable and you could be looking at two problems.
In the first instance you may simply not be able to deal effectively with the spillage, and in the second case, you are at least looking at a delayed time in getting the working area back to a condition which would permit workers to continue working, and any delay is likely to cause problems in terms of not only inconvenience, but potentially a cause for losing business or money.
Whether you look at the problem from the point of view of the safety and welfare of workers, the smooth running of the business, convenience or cost, relying on general purpose absorbents and general purpose spill kits is a lazy way of trying to solve the problem.
Although the term general purpose spill kit does seem to suggest that it can be used for any purpose, there is a good deal of difference between 'general purpose' and 'any purpose', and to confuse these two could cost your business and place the safety of your workers at risk.
You might consider your business or workshop too small to have to worry about major spillages, and that may be true, but even small spillages can sometimes pose a hazard, and spill kits are not available only in industrial sizes. There are spill kits and spill control solutions available in a wide range of sizes, and it may be prudent to purchase at least one oil only spill kit instead of yet another general purpose one.
Oil is notoriously difficult to clean up, and to absorb, and yet so often companies and businesses assume that a general purpose spill control solution will be enough to deal with an oil leak or an oil spillage. Oil is often all around us, being used as a coolant, a lubricant or even an ingredient, and relying on general purpose absorbents is simply not sufficient to deal with even a small spillage quickly, effectively and with minimum disruption and risk.
Oil only spill kits might look very similar to the general purpose spill kits, and admittedly, the external materials are very often the same, or at least very similar. But it is what is inside absorbents which makes them absorbent, and the chemical compounds inside oil only spill kits work in a very different way from any other form of spill control solution, even general purpose spill kits.
Oil only absorbents are able to actively attract oil molecules in a way that other spill control solutions cannot, and at the same time oil only spill kits actively repel water molecules, which can prove useful if there is a situation where oil has been spilt in a moist, wet or humid environment, or even where oil has been spilt into a body of water such as a tank, or a river.
But it isn't just oil only absorbents which need to be considered, because many workplaces have other dangers which need to be considered carefully, and in some cases general purpose absorbents may be either inadequate, or unsuitable. In some cases it may even be placing people in danger by using inappropriate spill kits.
For example, bodily fluids represent a very severe health hazard, yet every workplace will involve just such a risk, since there are people in every workplace. Bodily fluids in whatever form can represent a very real danger to health, and trying to deal with an accident using general purpose spill kits may have dire consequences. In such cases a bodily fluid spill kit should be provided, and this needs to be a staple spill control solution in virtually every workplace.
Using general purpose absorbents is certainly acceptable in many instances, and they play a very important part in dealing with a wide range of spillage situations. But to rely on general purpose spill kits to the exclusion of more appropriate spill control measures is wholly inappropriate and potentially very dangerous.
Author Resource:
Spill Kits | http://www.intersafety.co.uk | Spill Control
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