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SQAS Road Guidelines.
The chemical industry in Europe utilises to a large extent the logistic services offered by third parties to store, handle and transport raw materials, intermediates and finished chemical products. Chemical companies need assurance that these operations are carried out in a safe and quality manner with due regard for the protection of employees, the public and the environment. In the past this assurance has often been obtained by individual chemical companies undertaking periodic audits of their logistic service providers, leading to a fragmented approach and a multiplicity of auditing programmes which was costly and inefficient for both the chemical and transport industry.
Within the framework of Responsible Care, Cefic launched in the early 1990's the ICE programme aiming at improving the safety performance during the transport, storage and handling of chemicals. A key element of the ICE programme was the development of a number of Safety and Quality Assessment Systems (SQAS), each related to a particular transport mode or logistic operation (road, rail, intermodal, cleaning stations, marine packed cargo, bulk marine, storage terminals and barges).
SQAS provides a tool to assess the quality, safety and environmental management systems of logistic service providers in a uniform manner by independent assessors using a standardised questionnaire thereby avoiding multiple assessments by individual chemical companies. SQAS helps chemical companies in the process of selecting logistic service providers and in defining improvement actions with each of them.
Click to the SQAS site here
Clearing the air on smoke alarms.
A new International Standard harmonizes the various standards used around the world for smoke alarms designed to prevent injury, death or damage.
Smoke alarms are used in households and other residential accommodation to help detect fires and to alert occupants to quickly evacuate the premises. According to the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), 15 of every 16 homes in the USA have at least one smoke alarm and since these became available to consumers in the 1970s, the home fire death rate has been reduced by half.
However, one of the main difficulties manufacturers face is the different audible warning signals as well as the different labelling, connection and battery requirements for smoke alarms practised in different countries. These difficulties would be drastically reduced if smoke alarm manufacturers could follow one set of requirements and the criteria accepted in all markets.
ISO 12239:2003, Fire detection and fire alarm systems - Smoke alarms, provides manufacturers with a common set of functions - along with requirements, test methods, performance criteria and manufacturer's instructions - that are to be provided on all smoke alarms.
"ISO 12239 provides a common set of requirements to enable a manufacturer to manufacture to a single standard, enabling producers to obtain better economies of scale and reduce prices to consumers," says Peter Parsons, Chair of the subcommittee that developed the new standard.
Want to read the whole article: click here.
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