Hidden dangers and improvement measures in the chemical industry

The chemical industry is mainly involved in the fields of basic chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, petrochemicals, dyes and paints, pharmaceutical reagents, etc. Chemical raw materials, intermediates and products involved in chemical production are toxic substances, and chemical production processes are complicated. Therefore, there are real security risks in the entire chemical industry.

According to incomplete statistics, the chemical industry is also an area with multiple occupational diseases. The most important ones include occupational poisoning and pneumoconiosis. What are the potential safety hazards in the chemical industry?

1. The enterprise management is not in place, and the employee's medical examination is irregular

In the daily production, solution rupture or chemical leakage or spillage occurs. Employees often plan to save trouble, simply repair or wipe with a rag. Although this solves the problem in a short time, but if there is no review, thorough repair and remediation is often buried. There are major security risks.
Long-term work in chemical companies, due to environmental factors, people's physical fitness will be subject to varying degrees of damage. Although the state has specified specific physical examination periods for different posts, in the actual work, regular medical examinations by front-line workers have not been implemented.

2. Poor working environment, incomplete safety protection measures

Chemical companies are relatively special and generally far from the urban areas, and their work environment is relatively poor. In particular, some small-scale chemical plants are equipped with personal protective equipment that meets protection standards or are not provided for employees in pursuit of lowering the cost of the enterprise. In addition, in some special positions, the lack of air circulation needs to be improved and ventilation devices are not implemented.

3. Employees have weak safety awareness, do not wear protective equipment according to regulations, and operate in violation of regulations

Some medium and large-scale chemical companies have provided employees with qualified protective clothing such as chemical protective clothing, gas masks, and safety shoes as required. However, due to the beauty of appearance or ease of operation, employees’ safety awareness is often weak, and protective clothing is often tightly sealed. Gas masks are not in place.

In view of the existing security risks, how can we improve the measures?

1. The company strengthens propaganda, enhances safety awareness, and allows employees to clearly understand occupational diseases and preventive measures (such as doing more big-character newspapers, safety charts, etc.);

2. To strengthen employee technical training, especially for new employees, in addition to the quality of new recruits at the same time, but also on the staff of the operating technology system training, from time to time arrangements for education and training of on-the-job employees for re-skills training assessment.

3. Reasonably arrange regular staff physical examinations for special stations, and use the alternate system to change positions, which can effectively prevent the occurrence of chronic occupational poisoning.

4. The government will strengthen supervision and take substantive rectification measures for enterprises that do not strictly abide by laws and regulations to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees.

5. Regardless of the size of the company, the chemical industry should manage risk assessments for hazardous positions and then complete with personal protective equipment. Finally, companies need to check and monitor the implementation status of employees.

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