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DORSET BREWERY TO INTRODUCE BOC’S CELLAR SAFETY SERVICE
The tie-up with Palmers Brewery, who are based in Bridport, Dorset, to introduce the risk assessment package in their 55 pubs in the south-west, will ensure licensees comply with the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997. Under the regulations licensees have a responsibility to ensure that a competent person, with suitable knowledge and experience of the areas of risk, identifies, assesses and records the potential risks to employee health and safety. For dispense gas users this includes the risk of asphyxiation from carbon dioxide caused by accidental release or gas leaks from dispense equipment to the dangers presented by manual handling and storage of dispense gas cylinders. Based on the findings of assessment licensees must determine the precautions or measures required to eliminate or minimise these risks in order to provide a safe system of work. Tim Woodrow, tenanted trade director for Palmers Brewery, said: "We at the brewery have recognised the importance of trying to support our tenanted licensees with all the various statutory regulations with which they face right across their businesses. "As far as compliance with the Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, the BOC Sureflow support package was identified as the most comprehensive way of assuring our licensees that they will be able to carry out their own confined space risk assessments. This will now be implemented with the further support of our brewery technical services manager, Jeff Clark, who will take each licensee through the process". Gloria Jennings, BOC Sureflow’s product manager, said: "To date, more than 15,000 licensees have already signed up for our easy to use safety package. Compliance with the regulations is compulsory and the need for assessment has also been highlighted by recent guidelines issued by the British Beer & Pub Association in conjunction with the Health & Safety Executive. Our safety package demonstrates to licensees that compliance need not be as daunting as they imagine, and is just a matter of commonsense. "Cellar safety and the understanding of potential gas hazards is of the utmost importance and all licensees should make a suitable risk assessment record the findings. Safety legislation may seem like red tape but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that the laws are there to protect people from harm. In the event of a gas leak a person could be rendered unconscious in a matter of minutes. A few more minutes and the consequences could be fatal." Environmental Health Officers around the country have recently invited BOC Sureflow to demonstrate their risk assessment packages as the basis for a series of training courses on the hazards and correct use of dispense gases. This has heightened EHOs awareness of potential gas risks within the industry and, as the enforcement officers for the confined spaces legislation, they are now actively checking for compliance across the country.
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