Introduction
Hazard identification and mitigation should be a consistent part of any government or corporate program. No one can actually say when a disaster may strike and that is the main reason why no one can make the fatal mistake of becoming too complacent that everything will fall in their place at the right time because surely, anything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong. A government or a company that cares about corporate social responsibility knows that importance of planning early even before a natural or a man-made disaster occurs, especially if the hazard is located near public facilities such as nursing homes, educational institutions that house minors and even preschool students, or a community center that houses an unimaginable number of people that may be potentially exposed to a risk that a for profit entity as well as the local government has failed to identify and create mitigation plans for. The objective of this paper is to discuss the case of ABC Chemicals Corporation, a medium-sized chemical distributor, focusing on some applicable acts and policies with it, the identification of the hazards and risks, and the different possible methods how the identified risks can be controlled and regulated.
Hazard Mitigation and Control: A Case of ABC Chemicals Company
This is a case of ABC Chemicals, a medium-scale chemical distributor operating mostly in the domestic chemical industry. In terms of location, it is currently situated at the rear of a large metropolitan shopping precinct and within a 25 meter radius from the company’s main building are a nursing home that cares for the elderly residents of the local community with age-related conditions, a day care center that provides day care services for children under 5 years old, and a planned and proposed community center. Common day to day activities of the company include purchasing large quantities of cleaning chemicals that are delivered in 205 liter drums. Solvents, acids, corrosives, and detergents are some of the most common chemicals shipped to and from the company’s main building. ABC Company’s 50 people-strong workforces decant these chemicals into retail size containers that usually not exceed 30 liters or kilograms and then re-label and ship the finished products in company-badged delivery vehicles to retails outlets throughout the metropolitan area. There is a limited number of emergency equipment available in the plant’s main building considering the number of spills and accidents that regularly but unexpectedly occur in the vicinity and in the roads surrounding the building.
Laws Applicable to Hazard Identification and Mitigation
The laws, bills, and or acts that may be applicable to a corporation generally depend on the location where the company is located. This is because laws regarding hazard identification and mitigation and risk assessment and management in general vary from one state and country to another. In the United Kingdom for example, there is a legislation that was passed in 2011 addressing the health and safety issues that may be present in a particular working environment. The name of that act is the WHS Act or the Work Health and Safety Act of 2011. The act outlines a code of practice that both employers and employees may use as a reference in planning the safety and health-friendliness of a working environment. The code of practice defined in the act may also be admissible in court proceedings that involve disputes and formal complaints. The code of practice may also be used by the court as evidences of what is officially known about and as a hazard, and how the company promises to control such hazards and rely on the code of practice in determining what is reasonably and legally practicable in the current circumstances. It is important to note however that in some countries, a person or a business entity may not be legally prosecuted under the grounds of failing to abide with certain details of an established codes of practice alone. In general, codes of practice include guidelines about confined spaces; hazardous manual tasks such as the processing of potentially dangerous chemicals; presence of asbestos in the workplace; health and safety risks concerning the employees and the people near the vicinity of the main building; risk of falls in the buildings; proper labeling of hazardous chemicals in the workplace; managing noise and preventing hearing loss at work; preparing safety data sheets for hazardous chemicals; and work health and safety consultation, coordination and cooperation.
The area of hazard identification and mitigation is often an overlooked portion of managing a business, partly because of the laxity of local and state governments in enforcing current applicable laws and also partly because of the mere lack of laws applicable to workplace hazards and other related risks such as the possibility of endangering the health of nearby people such as the elderly and the children in the day care center as in the case of the ABC Chemicals Company. This is why for some socially-responsible companies, instead of relying on the laws passed in a certain country about hazard identification and mitigation; they rely on LGCR or Legal Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance. The LGCR is basically a complex set of tools, rules, processes, and systems that a business entity or basically any organization may use to implement, monitor, and adopt and integrated approach to business problems such as the ones outline in the case of ABC Chemicals.
In order to more objectively and clearly describe just how hazardous the ABC Chemicals building and its operations may be, let us enumerate the list of possible hazards.
- The purchase and delivery of very large quantities of solvents, acids, and other corrosives and detergents
- It was not specified whether these chemicals are properly labeled as hazardous, especially the corrosive ones
- It was not specified what safety mechanisms ABC Chemicals Company has outlined in case of an accident or an emergency during one of their purchase and or delivery trips
- Presence of local civic buildings near the vicinity of the ABC Chemicals Company’s compound
- The local nursing home care that cares for the elderly residents with age-related conditions such as dementia
- The child care center that provides day care for children under five
- The planned and proposed community center located at the large vacant lot at the back of the company compound—not yet a risk.
- The company compound is located in a very busy and accident prone—as evidenced by accident records, intersection of roads.
- The lack of safety equipment for the company’s employees considering the type of compounds they work with
- No SOPs regarding how spills and other serious accidents would be managed
- Limited emergency equipment available in the vicinity of the compound
All of these hazards have been identified based on the following criteria: their potential in affecting people that are located, working, or are residing nearby that are in no way a part of the day to day activities of the company and the company’s utter unpreparedness in times of crisis and or emergencies, and the availability of the resources and means for the company to address the identified hazard or risk. These two main criteria may also be used in assessing and identifying other future risks to health and the safety of the workers and other groups of people that may be involved.
The list above shows the sequenced list of possible hazards and risks identified in the ABC Chemical Company’s compound and its day to day operations from the most hazardous to the least hazardous. The risk identified as the most hazardous which is the purchase and delivery of very large quantities of solvents, acids, and other corrosives and detergents for example, has been identified as the most hazardous because it carries the greatest potential to affect other people and properties that may not be related to the day to day operations of the company and also because there is not so much that the company could do to prevent road and other delivery-related accidents. The ones at the bottom on the other hand have been identified as the least hazardous ones because they can either be easily addressed by the management—should they become enlightened about the risk that their activities carry and their responsibility in ensuring that people, involved or not-involved in the business, will not be affected, as much as possible, or are relatively easier and simpler to handle compared to the ones listed on top.
In the case of ABC Chemicals Company, there are a lot of things that they can do. First, they can greatly benefit from starting to change their perceptions on how they should manage their business. Of course, they should never fail to include profits in their top list of priorities but that does not mean they will take for granted all the other things altogether such as corporate social and environmental responsibility. Making profits is one thing but making profits in an environmentally and socially responsible way is another. After making a perceptual change, the company can start addressing the identified risks one by one starting from the least risky—because it has been arranged based on the risks that they can do a lot of things about which means that the company should have greater control over the risks located at the bottom of the list. In that case, they should start with providing the employees with the necessary training on safely handling and managing and mitigating basic to complex emergenciesso they do not go panicking in case a workplace related accident happens. As the company progresses, it should be able to take on larger risks that are on top of the lists such as reviewing the option to relocate to a more secluded or isolated community in order to minimize the company’s impact on the elderlies, children, and in order to give the community larger room to grow, which could later on be translated into a larger market that the company may seize.
References
Alexander, C., & Sheedy, E. (2005). The Professional Risk Managers' Handbook: A Comprehensive GUide to Current Theory and Best Practices. PRMIA Publications.
Musthaler, L., & Musthaler, B. (2007). Governance, Risk Management and Compliance and What it Means to You. Network World.
