Workplace Health And Safety Analysis In A Fuel Station

Workplace Health and Safety Regulations

Workplace health and safety (WHS) is frequently referred to as Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) which deals with assessment and mitigation of the risks at the work place that has potential to impact on health, safety and welfare of the people in the workplace. This mostly encompasses the service users, the service providers and the other stake holders like suppliers, contractors and volunteers (Government of Australia, 2018). The following assignment aims to highlight workplace health and safety prevailing in the fuel station as analysed from the perspective of the customer service attendant (CSA). In analysing the workplace health and safety, the assignment will follow six steps of risk assessment as proper by the government of Canberra (Government of Australia Capital Territory, 2018). The assignment will also cite hierarchy of risk control as framed by University of Sydney (University of Sydney, 2018).

Fuel station or petrol filling stations store and handle large amount of hazardous substances and thus present unique hazards due to high rate of inflammability of the products. In order to comprehensively manage the risk of dispensing fuel safely, the CSA or the service station manager must manage and maintain the fuel station in accordance to the work place health and safety legislations (Department of Environment and Climate Change [DECC] NSW, 2018).  

According to Government of Australia Capital Territory (2018), the main risk management process has six important steps and these includes hazard identification, identification of risk, assessment of risk, control of risk, documentation of process and proper monitoring and review.

Identification of the hazard is done on the basis of work design, equipment used, and the physical work environment.  In Fuel station, common hazard arise from hazardous chemical and mechanical equipment.

In order to find hazards proper inspection of the workplace is required to be undertaken. The best time for inspection include work activity hours. Safe Work Australia (2011) is of the opinion that in order to access hazards, proper questions must be framed and based on this; hierarchy of the risk control is required to be done.

Task or scenario	Hazard/s	Associated harm, e.g. what could go wrong?	Existing Risk Controls	Current risk rating	Any additional controls are required?	Residual risk rating
Storage of fuel	Storage tanks and dispense pumps are not adequately monitored	Unwanted spillage of fuel and hazards to newly recruited employee	Use of warning signs and marking over the storage tanks	Very high	· Proper training of the staffs · Proper monitoring of the dispense pumps · Design and installation of underground petroleum storage system	Low risk
Movement of the vehicle	Accident from collision with other cars, structures and people	Damage to the care and threat to fire ignition due to collision	Display of traffic information and warning signs which sets out the traffic control requirement	Very high	· Framing safe traffic system: one-way system for entry and another way for exist of the vehicles · Providing designated parking area close to the fuel pump	Low risk
Manual manoeuvring in the Forecourt design	Slips, trips and fall due to the presence of fuel trace over the ground surface	Injury of the staffs	Training of the staffs with minor fuel slippage	Very high	· Covering the ground surface with uneven tiles or sand to ensure traction · Providing the staffs shoes with traction soles · Proper drainage system of the storm water	Low risk
Fire control in the fuel station	Outbreak of sudden fire	Fatal damage to life and resources	Fire control system with fire extinguisher	Very high	· Training of the staffs in effective fire control · Proper warning signs of fire · Prohibition of the use of cell-phones in fire station · Prohibition of the use inflammable substance at the fire station	Low risk

As per the observation of CSA, the storage tanks are not adequately monitored. According to DECC NSW (2018), even minor leaks from underground tanks and supply lines can lead to fatal outcomes. So in order to effective reduce such health and safety concerns proper installation of the underground storage tank is mandatory. However, even the underground storage tank leads to leakage that may eventually lead to contamination in ground water and social which in turn endanger the health and safety of the human race and other living organisms. Thus it is important that the underground tanks are installed as per the guidelines of Australian Standard AS 1940 – 2004 and Storage and Handling of Flammable and Combustible Liquids and AS. As per the guidelines, tanks should not be placed directly in clay soils as it promotes corrosion rather tanks should be placed under an inert material like sand. The guidelines also propose installation of sacrificial cathodes in order to increase the sustainability of the ground-tanks. Proper water table must be used to bury the storage tanks and this will in turn help to reduce the leakage. Moreover, in order to mitigate the risk of leakage further, stock inventory monitoring must be done via using tools like statistical inventory reconciliations analysis (SIRA).

Risk Management Process

Safe design of the fuel station and driveways can help to prevent crashes and thereby helping to save lives. According to the Australian safety guidelines for the traffic management display of traffic information and warning signs which sets out the traffic control requirement are not enough. The traffic movement must be framed in such a way that there is one-way system for entry and another way for exist of the vehicles. Other principals include solid medians, flush medians, increase in the width of the krebside lane, locating the drive ways clear for the upcoming queues and proper stopping restrictions.

The analysis of the forecourt highlighted that the smooth surface with lack of proper drainage facility has increased the chances of the slips, trip and falls and this may lead to increase in the chances of the fatal injuries among the staffs and other stakeholders. Since it is a potential risk, hence it is important to eliminate the hazard. However, the fuels station authorises have only taken initiative to minimize the hazards and this includes training of the staffs to handle such accidents. However, such trainings are not comprehensive in mitigating the risk. Elimination of the risk of the hazard can be done via designing the ground surface with high traction covering and providing the staffs with high traction shoes. Department of Environment and Climate Change [DECC] NSW (2018) are of the opinion that apart from oil slip, slippage can also occur from rain water and hence the fuel dispensing area must have a roof top with 10 degree. Moreover, it was found that the storm water drains are located within the fuel dispensing area. This further invites hazards. The storm water drains must be located away from the fuel dispensing area with collection pit alarm, which will provide signals when the waste water level and high. Sand must be used near the vicinity of fuel dispensing area in order to avoid the chances of inflammation and accidental fall.

WHS regulation requires proper fire protection and fire fighting equipments for the types and the kind s of hazards chemicals have at the workplace. The WHS is of the opinion that there must be 9 Kg ABC (powder type) extinguisher installed near the dispensers or minimum of one extinguisher per dispensing bay. However, installations of extinguishers are not enough. As per the observation of CSA, the fire extinguishers at the surveyed fuel station is not maintained properly. The WHS regulations propose for maintenance of the fire extinguishers via maintaining routine service records. The date of manufacture and the date of the last pressure test must be noted down in a legible format. The staffs must also be trained regarding how to effectively manage fire during emergency.

Other recommendation in order control fire at the fuel station include prohibition of the use of the cell phones in the vicinity of the petrol pumps and prohibition of inflammable acts like smoking in the fuel station. This will help in the establishment of safe work practice and thereby minimizing the risk and the size of the hazards (Jadhav et al., 2014).

Identification of Hazards

The main vulnerable groups in fuel stations are the staffs belonging from aboriginals or the Torres Strait Islanders community (Brown et al., 2013). However, there are communication barriers among the aboriginals and the Australian originals and thereby increasing the concern for health and safety in workplace. The aboriginals are not well versed in English language (Munro & Mushin, 2016). Thus, the instructions must be presented with signs and symbols apart from noting it down in sentences. For example, the traffic symbols, hazard symbols, the tank refilling indicators or the safety monitoring indicators. Not only this, the aboriginals are required to be educated, regarding which the message communicated via each symbol so that it becomes easier for them to understand and work accordingly.

Conclusion

Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that abiding by the risk assessment framework in a fuel station in Australia via CSA, highlighted high risk workplace health and safety hazards in the domain of storage of fuel, traffic movements, forecourt design and effective fire control policies. However, elimination of hazard is not possible in a comprehensive manner but mitigation of risk can certain be executed. This mitigation of risk can be done via minimizing the size and volume of the hazard, establishing safe work practice and via providing proper training and detailed supervision. Some of the proposed recommendation apart from the staffs training and supervision include installation of underground petroleum storage system, maintenance of proper traffic management system, proper water drainage and maintaining traction of the forecourt and proper fire control policies and maintenance of fire equipments. Apart from this, the vulnerable population like the aboriginals or the Torres Strait Islanders who are working as staffs in the fuel station are required to trained via taking special attention to gap in understanding English language and use of symbols in understanding the instructions.

References

Brown, S., Shoveller, J., Chabot, C., & LaMontagne, A. D. (2013). Risk, resistance and the neoliberal agenda: Young people, health and well-being in the UK, Canada and Australia. Health, risk & society, 15(4), 333-346.

Department of Environment and climate Change NSW. (2018).Environmental Action For Service Station. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from:  https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/~/media/EPA/Corporate%20Site/resources/clm/2008552ServStations.ashx 

Easty, A. C., Coakley, N., Cheng, R., Cividino, M., Savage, P., Tozer, R., & White, R. E. (2015). Safe handling of cytotoxics: guideline recommendations. Current Oncology, 22(1), e27.

Government of Australia Capital Territory. (2018). 6 Steps to Risk Assessment. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/ci/fattach/get/79342/1460090880/redirect/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNTMzODcyODM0L2dlbi8xNTMzODcyODM0L3NpZC9mVVhzbW1RZ2UlN0VnREt6OU5Zd0ZOMUdLdzhYSnY5NFVzaHdFRzlwWmtYaDNwSyU3RSU3RV9nUUIyRFhRUERCY2pXb1BMOEZrTndvbnl1Uk95VmN2alJka0ltRko2Qm9VOFZ1ekdGN2ZQQmw2Q0hYVFAwbE9hOVJESmR5YXclMjElMjE=/filename/6+steps+to+risk+management+poster.pdf 

Government of Australia. (2018). Guidelines for service stations RTS 13. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from:   https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/road-traffic-standards/docs/rts-13.pdf

Government of Australia. (2018). Health & Safety. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.business.gov.au/risk-management/health-and-safety

Jadhav, A. H., Pawar, R. S., Pathare, P. M., Pawar, K. D., & Patil, P. (2014). Multi-automized fuel pump with user security. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 3(5).

Munro, J., & Mushin, I. (2016). Rethinking Australian Aboriginal English-based speech varieties. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 31(1), 82-112.

Queensland Government. (2012). A guide for service station operators under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from:   https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/82910/guide-service-station-op.pdf

Safe Work Australia. (2011). How To Manage Work Health And Safety Risks Code Of Practice. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/how_to_manage_whs_risks.pdf 

University of Sydney. (2018). Control the Risks. Access date: 10th August 2018. Retrieved from:  https://sydney.edu.au/whs/activities/control_or_fix.shtml