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Surface safety commendation for Cleveland Potash

HSE commends the excellence of the surface safety team at the company’s Boulby potash mine

CLEVELAND Potash Ltd (CPL) have been commended by the Health and Safety Executive for the excellence of their surface safety team at the company’s Boulby Mine. The inspectors pointed out that it is the only team of it’s kind in the country.

The commendation came as the latest four recruits completed their training at the Mines Rescue Service, based in Houghton le Spring, Co. Durham, bringing to 18 the number of staff fully qualified in surface safety.

The team is the responsibility of Jimmy Pink, safety compliance officer, who said: ‘We have always had an awareness of surface safety and a team ready to help out in an incident, but it wasn’t really on the same footing as the underground team. I pointed that out and they called my bluff and asked me to sort it out.’

A designated training facility was set up and stocked with top of the range equipment. Breathing apparatus, radios, gas detectors, winches and harnesses were all brought in. There is also a 50kg mannequin to help make exercises more realistic.

All new recruits are given an initial fitness medical before being sent to the Mines Recue Service for an intensive five-day course. There they are taught emergency first aid, high-risk/confined-space training, fire-fighting, working at height and winch and tripod skills.

‘The sort of incidents we need to be ready for are things like people having heart attacks or suffering broken legs in confined spaces or inside vessels,’ explained Mr Pink.

‘Also some of our buildings are six stories high, so we need to be able to work at height and get the casualty down to safety quickly. Even if a worker is in a harness, should they suffer a fall and be dangling in mid-air – what we call suspension trauma – life expectancy is only around 20min because of the pressure on the arteries in the thighs. We need to act fast.’

After initial training the team only needs a single training programme a year to comply with safety regulations, but CPL sends them on five courses a year in order to make sure they are the best and remain so.

‘We’re very proud of what we have achieved,’ said Mr Pink. ‘It’s been done at a cost of some £140,000 so far, but nothing shows CPL’s commitment to the safety of the workforce, wherever they are on site, better than this.’

During a recent inspection, representatives from the HSE praised CPL’s surface safety team and said their training and equipment levels meant they had set the benchmark for others to attain.

 
 

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