SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS FOR COLD STORES
New employees should read these instructions carefully. They have been prepared for your safety and to ensure that you remain able to support yourself and your family.
Experienced employees, should read these instructions fully as a reminder and advise your newer colleagues on how to best obey them. By drawing their attention to the dangers involved, you are playing an important part in the fight against industrial accidents and newcomer's lack of knowledge of the risks involved in the daily work
1. Fire protection
There is fire-fighting equipment placed at various locations in all departments. It is the departmental manager's responsibility to see that it is correctly placed, of the correct type and in perfect order. It is the responsibility of every employee to know where it is and how and when to use it.
Fire-fighting equipment must not be used for any other purpose and, if used, the responsible manager must be informed.
2. Fire prevention
Welding and gas cutting in any place other than a permanently allocated area may only be carried out after permission has been given by the manager or foreman responsible for the safety of the area in question.
All welders are obliged to follow the standing instructions regarding fire prevention and welding permission may only be given be persons with the appropriate authority.
Welding in a cold room, chill room or on ammonia pipes must only be carried out when a recognised member of the fire fighting team is present with the appropriate equipment.
3. Fire alarms
In the case of a fire, sound the alarm by using the local equipment, call the fire brigade and use the local fire appliances until the arrival of the fire brigade.
4. Reports of accidents, in-juries and damage
All accidents, whether they involve permanent injury or not, personal injuries and damage to equipment, must be reported at once to the foreman responsible for the area in question.
The foreman is then required to inform the supervisor, who will make an investigation and report to the plant manager.
5. Reports of 'near misses'
When (a 'near miss') an accident is narrowly avoided or a dangerous situation occurs, give others the benefit of your experience by reporting the situation in the same way as an accident. Tell the foreman in charge should report such incidents to the operation supervisor. In this way everyone can help to make the plant a safer place to work.
6. First aid equipment
The supervisor is responsible for making sure that the appropriate first aid materials are available at each working area, securely housed, clearly marked and permanently placed.
7. General safety requirements
Smoking is strictly forbidden, where signs are placed to that effect.
Intoxication at work is forbidden. Consumption of any alcoholic beverage is forbidden. Consumption of drugs is forbidden.
Suitable footwear is essential.
8. Good order and tidiness
Good order and tidiness are an essential part of accident prevention. Every employee should keep his place of work, changing room, wash-room, shower, toilet, etc. tidy.
Make yourself acquainted with your surroundings and the equipment you use. Note the locations of fire fighting equipment and the first aid box and find out which of your colleagues has first aid or fire fighting knowledge.
Follow the advice of your foreman carefully, his knowledge and experience can be of considerable advantage to you.
Anyone who works, no matter how frequently, in cold rooms should be acquainted with the safety precautions to prevent personnel being locked in. It is essential to know how cold store doors are opened manually from the inside and to be able to do this in darkness. The location of the 'shut-in' alarm should also be memorised.
Gangways and areas around doors must be kept clear at all times and trucks, pallets, boxes etc should be left in their proper place.
Pick up and replace any article that has been dropped and pay particular attention to spilled oil and other liquids. Some of the most serious industrial accidents are caused by simple faults.
Pay particular attention to inflammable materials.
Faults in machines, trucks, tools and leaks in pipes or ducts which cannot be rectified at once by the observer should be reported immediately to the foreman concerned.
9. Hygiene
Keep your workplace, wash-room, shower and toilet clean and use the facilities available. Cleanliness promotes health and comfort. Play your own part in maintaining healthy conditions and do all you can to encourage others to do the same.
10. Protective devices and guards
Fixed guards on machines and tools must not be removed except for repairs and maintenance by authorised personnel, when they must be replaced before restarting the machine.
Protective goggles, gloves and other clothing are available for hazardous jobs such as grinding, welding, etc and should be used at all times.
11. Machines
As a general rule, only those workers who are trained to use a particular truck or machine as part of their duties are allowed to operate them. The person using a truck or machine is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate safety regulations are followed.
Except for a person being lifted on a properly constructed safety platform to perform a duty, no one is to travel as a passenger on a forklift truck.
Batteries being charged give off an explosive and inflammable gas. Smoking or naked flames are forbidden adjacent to battery charging points.
12. Repairs, cleaning and greasing
Only properly authorised personnel may repair and maintain machinery and trucks. Faults in machines and trucks must be rectified immediately.
Forklift trucks must always be operated a safe speed and a constant watch must be kept in the direction of travel. The forks should always be kept lowered when driving an unloaded truck. Whenever a load is lifted, be especially careful about others who may pass under the load.
13. Safety instructions for ammonia
All personnel who work with ammonia must be instructed in the proper handling of containers and equipment and given instructions in the use of breathing apparatus, gas masks, protective clothing and goggles.
The nearest showers, drinking fountains and water taps should be known by all who may be exposed to an ammonia leak, as a quick and thorough rinsing is the first requirement if ammonia comes in touch of any part of the body.
14. Welding and soldering
When welding or soldering ammonia pipes and vessels, every precaution must be taken as certain mixtures of ammonia gas and air could ignite. It is therefore important to flush out pipes and vessels by blowing them through with air or inert gas.
Pipes and vessels which have contained refrigerant may be expected to have residual oil in them after purging of refrigerant. It is important also to remove oil before welding as this too can cause fire and explosions.
15. Refrigeration plant
Charging with refrigerant and start-up of a plant must not take place until all safety valves, blow-off pipes, bursting disks, high pressure cut outs and pressure gauges are connected and brought into service.
If it is necessary to warm refrigerant cylinders to increase the rate of charging, hot water should be used, never an open flame.
The marking and coding of refrigerant cylinders should also be checked and double-checked before adding or extracting refrigerant. Different types 'of refrigerant and other industrial gases must never be mixed or their cylinders contaminated. Operators must never leave open oil drain valves unattended. He must also dispose of drain oil.
16. Special standing instructions
It is the specific responsibility of the plant manager to ensure that the operations and work carried out under his authority conform to the various statutory requirements of any factory's act, local utility board's regulations, the company's own instructions and the requirements of the local chief fire officer.
The plant manger should cheek the fire fighting equipment under his control at least once a month and satisfy himself that sufficient personnel have the necessary knowledge of fire fighting and alarm procedures.
An exercise in fire drill with all personnel should be conducted at least once a year and a yearly discussion and contact with the local fire office should be made as a matter of routine.
