Posted By John Taylor
Has anyone done work on explosive atomospheres on site with respect to ATEX Directive and can point me in the right direction

Regards John Taylor

Posted By Dave Daniel
Re- Paul Ledbetter's comments. At the present time most of the codes of practice supposed to be published to clarify what is required (10 in all) have vanished into the woodwork and have never been published. At a recent meeting with senior HSE officials in respect of DSEAR, it became clear that they were relying on guidance which is now obsolete as a result of DSEAR and had no intention of re-writing it.

The zoning and classification of explosive atmospheres was one of the matters discussed and the HSE have still to come back from a site visit in August and clarify how they envisage the law working in practice.

I get the impression this is an issue being passed around the HSE because no-one knows how to overcome some of the absurdities and unanswered queries it has generated.

Join the club of frustrated H&S practitioners trying to make some sense of it!

Regards, Dave Daniel - H&S Consultant - Coventry

Posted By Sean Fraser
Forgive my niavety, but I'm not clear on what the problem is so I'd be grateful if someone could explain it for me.

What I understand is that the ATEX (EU) requirements have now superseded the previous BASEEFA (UK) standards and classifications, except in certain industry operations.

The apporach is two-fold:

1] Assessment of hazardous locations to determine the nature and persistency of an explosive atmosphere, then assigning a zone classifiaction, and -

2] Ensuring that equipment is correctly specified, purchased and operated as being acceptable for use in the zone.

For several years, manufacturers have been obliged to change over to the ATEX classifications for their products and to mark the equipment accordingly. Now, users of the equipment must have assessed and correctly zoned their locations, along with an adequate awareness programme, so staff know the requirements. And when zoning, apply the safety principle of when in doubt, apply the stricter standard until otherwise demonstrated and proven to be unnecessary and so relaxed.

There is no real difference from what people were previously applying, except for modification of the zoning characteristics and obviously the zone classification terminology. Is the problem that people are unsure what constitutes an "explosive atmosphere", or just that they believe there is a new requirement upon them that they haven't had to address before?

In effect what I am saying is that those who were previously employing BASEEFA standards on their operations are simply to move to ATEX and should be fully capable of making that transition safely and in a co-ordinated manner. For the rest of us - if we didn't have an explosive atmosphere before, then it can't suddenly arise now so where is the concern?