Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring

CoGDEM is the Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring, a trade association with a membership of over fifty companies involved in the gas detection industry. We are pleased to have ETP (the publishers of this IET magazine) as an Associate Member, so we will place a regular column of news from the gas detection industry in the IET magazine.

In October 2013, the UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) concluded two legal cases against small businesses, both involving confined spaces where flammable fumes had built-up and been ignited by electrical apparatus that was not Ex-compliant for use in Hazardous Atmospheres. 

In Lancashire, a worker was severely burned and left almost completely paralysed after a fireball engulfed him inside a newly manufactured airport fuel tank that he was cleaning. Although there was no fuel in the tank, the solvent being used to wipe down the inner walls was highly flammable, and when the worker unplugged the light he was using, the spark caused an ignition. Colleagues saw flames shooting two metres up from the manhole that the worker had used to enter the tank.

The employer was ordered to pay £91,000 in fines and costs for breaches of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974, including a failure to provide any form of monitoring for fumes, despite reports from workers over many years that the fumes were making them feel sick. The day after the incident the employer stopped using the solvent and found that soapy water provided the required cleanliness.

In another court case in October, also in Lancashire, the HSE prosecuted a vehicle breakers yard for two breaches of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmosphere Regulations 2002 (DSEAR). Vehicles being scrapped were moved into a workshop above a pit so that residual fuel and lubricants could be drained into open containers within the pit. It was common practice to puncture the vehicles’ fuel tanks using a conventional electric drill, and it is believed that a spark from the drill ignited highly volatile petrol fumes, starting a fire which engulfed a worker in the pit and subsequently led to a major incident in which the entire workshop and its contents were ablaze, requiring all three emergency services to attend. The employer has to pay a total of £65,000 in fines and costs; despite knowledge of the flammable substances they were dealing with, the employer failed to protect its staff with fire and fume detectors or safe electrical apparatus.

CoGDEM’s member companies are represented on several industry groups that CoGDEM itself is a member of, including the BSI committees for electrical apparatus used in hazardous areas (EXL/31) and gas detectors (EXL/31/1). As part of the L/6/10 group, CoGDEM is a ‘Stakeholder’ in matters to do with the ATEX Directive and the worldwide IECEx standards. For the benefit of members who are involved with domestic carbon monoxide detection, CoGDEM is a member of the Gas Industry Safety Group (GISG), the All Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group’s forum (APPCOG) and Gas Safe Register’s National Stakeholder Group.