Safety before you begin to work at hazardous sites

Chemical processing plants, tank farms, refineries, oil production platforms, and other similar areas are referred to as hazardous sites. This is because these facilities house all the risks related to explosions and fire that may occur due to explosive mixtures, vapors or dusts. The technical personnel that are employed in these facilities to either work there or help in designing the installations are acutely aware of all the hazardous substances and areas and also the risks involved.

Hazwoper safety training recommends that the workers employed to work at the hazardous sites should be made aware of all the risks and hazards they will be facing, even before they start working.

At a typical facility, hazardous areas can be classified into two different categories. One is the probability of presence of a flammable or an explosive mixture at the site. The other would be the type of the material actually present. As per these two different types of hazardous areas, the classification that specifies the area is called Area Classification and the one that deals with the materials is called Material Classification. In some cases, temperature is considered as a third parameter. The classification based on this type is called Temperature Classification. An equipment that is specially designed to measure the hazards is used to determine the hazards as per the area, material and temperature. All these precautions should be taken well before the work at a hazardous site is started. It is always better to prevent problems and risks from occurring than being sorry later.