Safety check for all 250 hazardous units in Goa (Herald)

Safety check for all 250 hazardous units in Goa July 8, 2013 SHWETA KAMAT PANJIM: For the first time Goa would conduct a safety audit of all of its 250 hazardous units once every two-years, to ensure industrial safety and prevent accidents. Not just the major accident hazardous (MAH) units, but the pharmaceuticals, steel, chemical and other industries under the hazardous category would be subject to this regime. This would be mandatory under the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers (IFB) drafted rules ~Goa Occupational Safety and Health Audit Rule 2013, under the Union Ministry’s Environment Protection Act, according to which audit of all industries, depending on its thrash-hold quantity of chemicals, would be conducted. The move aims at bringing down the incident rates in industries to ‘zero’, which is currently between 1.4 to 1.5 per 1000 workers. Currently, the safety audits are conducted only for 17 MAH, which are registered in Goa. Speaking to Herald, Inspector of Factories Vivek Marathe said that as per current rules hazardous industries have to furnish a safety report before they commence their operations while an annual safety inspection of only 17 major hazardous industries is carried out in the state. Marathe said that the new rules have been moved for government approval after receiving comments from industrial experts. “These rules will now focus on pharma, steel, chemical and other hazardous industries using 100 kg or liter of hazardous chemical,” he said. “The audit will help both the company and the government in identifying where the lacunas lie and so take appropriate measures. It also aims at reducing accidents,” Marathe said. The new rules are expected to come into force within the next three months. As per the rule, the owners of the industries have to get a safety audit done by a competent agency to be accredited by a board constituted by the Union ministry . Such auditing should be carried out internally once a year by a team of suitable plant personnel and externally once every two years by a competent agency. The factory owner shall send the report to the chief inspector with respect to the implementation of recommendations with 30 days of the audit. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Main%20Page%20News/Safety-check-for-all-250-hazardous-units-in-Goa/76655.html