SEVESO Awareness

Course description

Background

The "Seveso" accident which occurred in 1976 at a biocide manufacturing chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, led to the development of the EC (Control of Major Accident Hazards Involving Dangerous Substances (COMAH)) Regulations, 2000 (S.I. No. 476 of 2000) – more commonly known as the Seveso II Directive. These regulations will be replaced in 2015 by the new Seveso III Directive. A major change will be the use of the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) for classification of chemicals to determine whether they are within the scope of the Directive. Many factories which store chemicals (pharma, chemical, warehouse storage, oil storage, waste to energy,) and facilities which store more than 100 tonnes of heavy fuel oil (hospitals, power stations, industrial sites, bitumen plants, dairy processing facilities) that were not Seveso sites will become so and many lower tier sites will become upper tier sites. This one day course covers requirements of COMAH regulations including the potential  Seveso III changes in scope and how to determine the likely effects on a site by determining the GHS categories of substances.

Course objectives

On completing this SEVESO Awareness course the participant will:

– Know background to Seveso Directives,

– Be familiar with legal requirements (including Seveso III changes),

– Be familiar with duties of local authorities, HSA and operators,

– Understand requirements in relation to site safety management system,

– Be familiar with accident scenarios, MAPPs / Safety Reports, external emergency plans etc.

– Be familiar with Seveso risk assessment process.

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Course programme

– Introduction to SEVESO Directive and COMAH Regulations,

– General duties,

– Major accident prevention policy (MAPP),

– Notifications,

– Safety report – purpose, structure, content and revision,

– Emergency planning – onsite / off-site plans, implementation, review and testing,

– Provision of information  by the operator,

– Enforcement, regulation  and land use planning,

– Functions of competent authorities,

– MAPPs and Safety Management,

– Role of relevant authorities,

– Introduction to Seveso III changes,

– Alignment of Seveso III with the Globally Harmonised System (GHS).

Legal case studies and interactive individual and group training exercises are used throughout the course to reinforce delegates’ learning. This includes identification of legal requirements specific to each attendee’s organisation.

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Who should attend

All persons who work at COMAH or SEVESO establishments and especially managers, supervisors and safety professionals who have responsibilities within the company for managing or implementing major accident controls. 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.