This story is an example of a health and safety risk presented by another company in the vicinity of an organization.

To design a successful health and safety management system, you may need to consider any industrial neighbours as well as your own company. Once this system has been established, it must be maintained, updated, and reinforced.

No better is this exemplified than during a recent ISO 45001 audit training session. This was provided to a company which, like many others, is situated in an industrial area with many neighbours.

Sometime during a health and safety audit training session I was providing (ironic, I know) I hear the sound of an alarm.

I asked the Distribution Manager if they knew the source of the alarm. They told me that that it was coming from a nearby chemical site and that it sounded regularly.

“What does the alarm mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” was the reply.

“Maybe we should find out,” I said.

It turned out that the alarm from the nearby chemical site was for when there had been release of toxic gas. When sounded, staff at the company I was providing audit training for had to make their way to certain safe areas within the site.

Instead, because the team were unaware of the alarm’s meaning, we had been stood around the site oblivious to the health and safety risk; sitting ducks patiently waiting to inhale toxic gas.

Such a case is an example of a risk presented by another company in the vicinity of an organization, specifically ISO 45001 Clause 8.1.1 “Assessments of hazards and management of risk” and “Training and communication.”

Nobody wants to spend their evening with their family burping toxic gas. Establishing, implementing, and maintaining these health and safety protocols ensures this is avoided.

It can be hard to do things exactly by the rule book at times, but in a situation like this the risk presented to your staff is too great.