When oil drips from a hose fitting onto the floor in a production area or a pan that was placed under a leaky drum faucet gets knocked over, workers who have been taught how to safely clean up after themselves often don’t give a second thought to grabbing a handful of paper towels or an absorbent and taking care of the mess. Most wouldn’t even consider these occurrences to be spills. But, are they just as comfortable cleaning up a 20-gallon or even a 100-gallon spill?
Responding to spills sometimes can present hazards that workers don’t face on a daily basis, and not every spill as easily is tackled as the first two scenarios mentioned above. When is a spill just an incident requiring clean up or an emergency requiring a hazmat response?
Incidental or Emergency
Anyone who is tasked with cleaning up a spill needs to understand the hazards it presents and know what precautions need to be taken to safely clean it up. It doesn’t matter if the spill is just a few ounces or if it is 100 gallons. A well-trained worker quickly will be able to assess a situation and know whether to take care of the spill or evacuate.
A first step for workers who could encounter a spill at a facility is to understand the difference between incidental and emergency spills. Incidental spills are the most-common type of spills facilities face. An incidental spill does not pose a substantial hazard to the worker or workers cleaning it up. These spills usually are small quantities of lower-hazard chemicals that do not have the potential to become an emergency in a short time frame.