Keep employees safe - store hazardous substances in the right safety cabinets

Most industrial facilities use hazardous substances on a daily basis. These might be flammable liquids, aerosols containing explosive propellants or degreasing chemicals or solvents.

Because of the risks associated with these substances, health and safety laws dictate that they must be kept in a secure lockable safety cabinets and meet the Factory Inspectorate Certificate of Approval No 1 Parts 3 & 4.

The safety cabinet you use to store these substances must be colour coded so people can distinguish easily between the substances stored within it. For example, flammable liquids should be stored in cabinets colour coded yellow. Acids and alkalis should be in a white colour coded cabinet and pesticides in a green cabinet. The cabinets you choose should also be COSHH approved, so you need to make sure that you buy them from a reputable dealer.

Keeping your employees safe is of paramount importance for any industrial site manager. And if all your hazardous substances are kept in appropriate storage facilities, you will be well on the way to not just meeting legislation, but also improving the safety on your site.

It’s important to make all your employees aware how important it is to return these substances to their appropriate cabinets after use and also educate them on how to tackle spills of dangerous substances should they occur.