Explosion protection document

INTRODUCTION

The Occupational Health & Safety Act requires you to be able to guarantee the safety of your employees. As an employer, you are therefore obliged to draw up a risk inventory and evaluation. In it, you have to record the risks that the work entails in your organisation, as well as how you think you can avoid or reduce those risks as much as possible.

If there is a possible risk of dust or gas explosions in your company, an explosion protection document is also required. It states:

an assessment of the explosion risks
a danger zone classification of areas subject to an explosion hazard
the technical and organisational measures that you have taken, and that have yet to be taken.

The regulation of the Explosion protection document (EpD)

The explosion protection document must be in place in accordance with the European Directive 1999/92/EC ‘Minimum requirements for the improvement of health protection and safety of workers who may be at risk from explosive atmospheres'. The directive is now known as ATEX 153. In terms of content, this directive is the same as the old ATEX 137.

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What does the explosion PROTECTION document say?

The explosion protection document is the result of an analysis of the explosion risks. How likely are explosive situations to arise? How likely are ignition sources to become active and how serious are the expected consequences? And which places in your company should be labelled as danger zones?

Once you have mapped this out, you will have an exact insight into the technical or organisational measures necessary to ensure the safety of your employees. How to warn your employees and how to act in the event of an unexpected calamity. All these analyses and measures must be included in the explosion protection document.

Your organisation and the explosion PROTECTION document

The European standard NEN-EN 1127-1 describes how to achieve a proper risk analysis, and which technical measures you can take to overcome the various risks. A good guideline for defining and classifying the danger zones can be found in the Dutch practice directive NPR 7910-1 (gas explosion hazard) or the NPR 7910-2 (dust explosion hazard), derived respectively from the European standards NEN-EN-IEC 60079-10-1 (gas explosion hazard) and NEN-EN-IEC 60079-10-2 (dust explosion hazard).

As you can see, the preparation of an explosion protection document according to all these guidelines is specialised matter. Bureau Veritas Asset Management can focus on years of experience and expertise, and can, if necessary, extend the explosion protection document with an Ignition Hazard Assessment (IHA).

Bureau Veritas Asset Management

Bureau Veritas Asset Management focuses on research and inspections related to building management. The preparation of explosion protection documents is one of our specialisations. We know the regulations in detail, because we are a member of the NEC-31 standards committee that deals with explosion hazards in accordance with ATEX. If required, we are also happy to help you draw up an improvement plan and implement measures. Together, we can thus ensure that your buildings and installations comply with the legal requirements regarding explosion-safe conditions, and your desired conditions.

INFORMATION

For additional information about our services and the possibilities, please call us on +31 88 450 55 00.