CBA News

The latest report from the Chemical Business Association (CBA) reveals that accidents to employees working in the UK chemical supply chain are at an all time low.

CBA’s annual Indices of Performance Report – containing the aggregate safety, health, and environmental performance of its member companies – records the lowest Lost Time Accident Rate it has ever reported.

Last year, CBA members made over one million journeys to deliver more than three and a half million tonnes of chemicals to virtually every sector of the UK economy.

CBA’s Indices of Performance report, now in its twenty-second year, is based on returns from 93 distributor member companies employing 5,453 people.

Andrew Beck, Chairman of CBA’s Responsible Care Committee, said, “I am pleased to report yet another year of solid progress by member companies. CBA is able to report the lowest Lost Time Accident Rate it has ever recorded.  In at least two respects – reportable accidents and transport incidents – CBA’s data goes beyond the statutory minimum reporting requirements.  Despite these self-imposed higher standards, member companies continue to demonstrate continuous improvements in their performance.”

Reportable Accidents

Distributor companies reported 16 accidents in 2014, a 20% reduction on the previous year (2013 – 20).  CBA continues to publish data for accidents resulting in incapacities of more than three days. This provides a higher standard than required by RIDDOR (the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases, and Dangerous Occurrences) that, in 2012, changed the threshold to injuries resulting in incapacities of more than seven days. CBA’s approach also preserves the integrity of the time series it has built up over the last 22 years.

Four accidents resulted in serious injury (2013 – 8) and six resulted in incapacities of more than seven days.   Accidents resulting from a manual handling process or a slip, trip or fall represented 44% of total accidents (2013 – 55%). Just two accidents resulted from an exposure to harmful substances (2013 – 2).  No fatalities were reported.

Lost Time Accidents

The Lost Time Accident (LTA) rate for those reportable under RIDDOR, plus the additional recordable accidents resulting in incapacities of more than three days decreased to 0.16 (2013 – 0.21). This is the lowest rate ever reported by CBA. The LTA rate is the ratio of reportable accidents to 100,000 man-hours – the assumed number of hours worked by one person during a lifetime.

Transport Incidents

Incidents involving transport are the key measure of the industry’s performance.  CBA’s data goes beyond RIDDOR-reportable incidents and includes any transport incidents requiring the attendance of the emergency services. Such incidents can include minor traffic accidents, mechanical breakdown or a simple puncture repair.

In 2014, CBA member companies made over one million separate journeys to distribute over three and a half million tonnes of chemicals.  Seven transport incidents were reported (2013 – 7). This equates to 1.9 transport incidents for every million tonnes of product distributed by CBA members in 2014 – a slight increase on the previous year (2013 – 1.8).

Waste

CBA collects data on the disposal routes used by its distributor companies for the two main categories of waste. In terms of Special/Hazardous Waste, 9% was recycled, recovered, or disposed of with energy recovery. Only 6% of the total was sent to landfill.   Of the Non-Hazardous Waste generated, 38% was recycled, reprocessed, or disposed of with energy recovery and 23% went to landfill.

Enforcement

There was one conviction recorded against a CBA member in 2014 (2013 – 0). This arose from a prosecution by the Health & Safety Executive for an offence under the Health & Safety at Work Act.

Further information from:

Peter Newport, Chief Executive
Michael Cooper, Responsible Care Co-ordinator
01270 258200