When a gas leak occurs in your facility, you need to take the necessary time to figure out not only the root cause, but what you can do to contain the leak. You must also clear out any of your staff and employees from the area. The initial concern may be an explosion due to proximity to an open flame, but even if that never comes to pass, prolonged exposure to a gas leak can lead to long-term problems like memory issues and loss of coordination. In fact, they can even lead to fatal suffocation if not properly detected and addressed.
As a manager for a facility, you need to have two minds about this potential scenario. From a personal perspective, no one wants to expose their employees to potential harm. From a financial perspective, though, medical costs and lawsuits that come from gas exposure could lead to a financial impact your company can’t recover from. With this in mind, it’s essential that your company know all the means it has to minimize the impact of a gas leak. Here are the steps you can take.
Maintain Your Facility: A lot of the time, the circumstances that lead up to gas leaks can be avoided. Make sure that any appliances or installations you use in your facility that use gas are set up by proper engineers with the proper tools to do the job. In addition, you want to invest the time and energy for proper maintenance checks. This added effort will do a lot to avoid gas leak trouble.
Train Your Staff Effectively: Despite maintenance effort, accidents and other issues can still lead to gas leaks. In situations like these, it’s essential that your staff knows what to do to protect themselves and contain the area to prevent the spread of gas. Make sure that you put together a concrete set of guidelines to handle these scenarios, and make sure they are prominently displayed in any areas where a leak is possible.
Invest In Detection Equipment: Depending on the gas, you may be able to detect a potential leak by smell, but not only is this a flawed method, it also requires you or your staff to be exposed to gas. The best way to get around this issue is having a gas leak detector on hand wherever there may be a leak. Equally important is making sure that the equipment that you choose to use is taken care of. For example, the average gas leak detector has a five-year lifespan at maximum. In order to reach this tier of usage, though, it needs to be regularly calibrated. Ideally, the most efficient options are going to not need to be calibrated that often, but when needed, it’s easy to do.
In order to properly protect both your facility and your staff, it’s essential to not only have a good set of practices in place, but also use technology that allows you to both detect potential gas leaks as well as react quickly when they do happen. When it comes to gas leak detectors, Chemtech International is the perfect match. Chemtech is a family-run business with 30 years of experience helping companies around the world with environmental compliance.