European directive drives new regulations for chemical engineers

Chemical engineers working in safety can benefit from a new seminar on the implementation of the Seveso lll European directive that comes into force in 2015.

Seveso affects the Control of Major Accidents and Hazards (COMAH), which ensures that businesses take the necessary measures to prevent accidents involving dangerous substances. It mainly impacts upon the chemical industries, but also some storage activities, explosives, nuclear sites and other sectors.

A major change will be the use of the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for chemical classification to determine whether they are within the scope of the Directive. Some sites may see a change in their COMAH status (top tier, lower tier or non-COMAH) when the new Directive is implemented, depending upon the substances and quantities held.

As well as introducing a new alignment method, the European Commission is taking the opportunity to modernise the Directive by making it consistent with other related environment legislation. Key areas of change include; strengthening the provision of information to, and consultation with, the public and tighter standards for inspections.

To support those chemical engineers impacted by the upcoming changes, IChemE stages Towards Implementation of Seveso III as revised COMAH Regulations on 19 March in London, UK.

The seminar includes:

• Seveso III - how we got here and looking forward to new COMAH regulations
• Will Seveso III affect your COMAH status?
• Update on heavy fuel oil
• Public information - openness and transparency, including discussion
• Project on non-technical summaries of safety reports, including discussion
• Land use planning and hazardous substance consents
• Update on Article 4 - latest from Europe
• Industrial viewpoint
• Major hazard regulation from an SME viewpoint

The course is aimed at safety managers and those responsible for compliance with the COMAH Regulations. This would include existing COMAH top tier and lower tier sites, and also sites which are currently outside of COMAH but may have potential to come into scope.

An early bird registration rate is available until the end of the month (IChemE members: £225 + VAT/non members £325 + VAT. Visit the Seveso III seminar webpage for more information or to register.