Safety news
- Implementation FindMolecule
The correct registration of hazardous substances is a legal requirement from the Brightlands Chemelot Campus Environmental Permit. It is the first condition for achieving more control of hazardous substances during storage, normal use, and emergency response. Legislation and regulations are becoming stricter in this area, making proper registration indispensable.
The administration of hazardous substances was previously registered in Cispro and a number of customer-specific applications. This package was out of service and has been recently replaced by FindMolecule. These old applications have been phased out with FindMolecule as of March 2021. The Management and Control phase of FindMolecule has started to ensure the correct and complete registration of hazardous substances to be in compliance with legal requirements. For the management of the data, BCC depends on our tenants, who have to register themselves all changes in the FindMolecule application. For this, there is a large user group, that can support the correct data management based on specific characteristics such as CAS-number, H-codes, vapor pressure, etc. Assuming tenants properly register their hazardous substances and keep them up to date, we have an up-to-date picture of the hazardous substances present on the Campus. This will also allow us to assess directly, much more easily than before, whether new or changed amounts of hazardous substances fit within the licensed space.
- Changes in Fire Alarm Systems and broadcast messages
The conversion of the fire alarm system has recently been completed. As a result, the control of the evacuation signal has been adjusted. In the old situation, an automatically generated fire alarm sent a silent alarm to the fire brigade. The fire brigade then arrived on the spot and determined whether or not an evacuation took place. In the new situation, the evacuation alarm is immediately given with the notification to the fire brigade, which saves valuable time in the event of a fire. The chance that there will be more frequent evacuations for a false alarm has increased, but this does not outweigh the benefits in a real emergency.
In addition to the adjustment of the fire alarm system, there has also been a change in the amount of public announcements. The number of broadcast messages has been reduced due to the new agreements that have been made with the control room so that only relevant broadcast messages can be heard on Brightlands Chemelot Campus.
- In case of emergency, call 5 times 6
If you are at home and you need an emergency service, you call 112. If something happens at Chemelot, you call 66666. With the landlines you choose 5 times 6, however, the amount of landlines on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus is decreasing. Therefore it is important that you program the extended number of the emergency room (046-47)66666 on your mobile phone.
Why are we telling you this? Because the emergency services alarmed via 112 cannot get any further than the Chemelot entrance gates. The emergency room switches to our own ambulance, fire brigade, and security. They are on the spot within 6 minutes.
These experienced teams are continuously educated and trained to act quickly and effectively in a specific work environment like ours. And you understand that every minute counts when your colleague needs CPR or is in danger. If external emergency service is still needed, the emergency room will ensure it will be alarmed.
So remember: in case of emergency, call 5 times 6 or 046-4766666!
- Updated Brightlands Chemelot Campus Regulations
Based on changes in the CSP/PB Site rules Chemelot, the BCC Regulations have been adapted accordingly. Due to the new regulations, there is a general smoking ban on the entire Chemelot Site, both indoors and outdoors, which has been incorporated in art 2.13 BCC regulations. In the old regulations, landlords were allowed to facilitate a smoking cabinet, this is no longer possible. The smoking ban includes parking places and access roads.
- Shared space/ Traffic on Brightlands Chemelot Campus
Since the cancellation of the Covid-19 measures, more employees are coming back to the campus. This increase has led to more unsafe situation reports and remarks regarding traffic safety on the campus and in the shared space. On the campus, the Dutch traffic regulations apply with a more stringent maximum speed (30 km/h and 5 km/h in the shared space). Besides the regulations, traffic safety requires attention for all users while driving, biking, or walking. Take this into account while walking, biking, driving, or parking on the campus. Specific traffic safety and parking rules can be found in the Brightlands Chemelot Campus regulations art 2.9 and 5.2.
Sometimes Brightlands gets requests to expand the sidewalks to places where people are walking. The current sidewalks and roads are designed based on a risk assessment. Not all requests will lead to a safer place to walk, although it seems logical to add more sidewalks because employees use shortcuts.
Some requests are useful and will increase traffic safety, for example, the pavement situation near P1 (Lonza) which is now being implemented. For all the requests that are not implemented immediately, it remains our common responsibility to use the existing infrastructure in a safe way, taking all the other users into account.
It is the shared responsibility of every employee at the campus to make people aware of the risks that they introduce themselves by not following the traffic safety and parking rules.
Safety Performance
In the first quarter of 2022, we saw an increase in incidents. Based on this increase a letter was sent to all tenants to increase awareness. Unfortunately in April two incidents with injury took place, further increasing the Frequency Index. Organizational measures are set to prevent similar incidents in the future, but we still have to increase general safety awareness.
The Community Board have set actions to draw more attention to incidents involving injuries and to promote safety awareness workshops in laboratories. Contact us if you need more information.
One in Safety (Samen Bewust Veilig)
- Incident follow up
Based on the increased Frequency Index and the need to increase general awareness on short notices, it was decided that Safety Flyers must be drawn for all incidents involving injuries. These flyers will be distributed towards all tenants to learn from each other’s incidents as part of the “One in Safety” program.
