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Guide lines on Wind Socks located near hazardous materials
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Posted By michael treacy Looking for information regarding Guide lines (Health and Safety)for the location of a wind sock in the area of Hazardous Materials,stored outside a working area.In case of a leak or threat of fire,should employees know which directions to avoid.Any reference to Health and Safety which i can pass on to Management would be appreciated.
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Posted By Dave Adams CMIOSH My previous site (lower tier COMAH) had a wind sock and also wind speed and direction monitor and recording equipment.
We found it most useful in refuting complaints of smells. Essentially every time the local landfill site unearthed something smelly - we got the grief. However if we knew where the complainant was in relation to us and the wind direction we could deny / accept responsibility with some degree of certainty.
Mind you, depending on how big your site is and what kind of fumes are being emitted you probably wont need to have a wind sock!!
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Posted By Mike Brettle This question raises some interesting issues. I'm a professional meteorologist with an interest in wind measurement at COMAH and similar sites. There is a real problem in that although the HSE may require sites to have wind instruments (a wind sock is a very simple, and reliable, wind instrument) it does not say anything about quality assurance regarding the instrument. In practice an incorrectly installed or badly exposed wind vane or wind sock can be worse than useless. Possible errors are not small. Small wind vanes mounted on the edges of buildings could give errors of 180 degrees!
As to the initial problem posed of where to mount a wind-sock: - there is a lot of material available on the location of wind instruments but this tends to focus on measurements intended for climate studies or weather forecasting and may be unrealistic in an urban or industrial environment. Probably the best advice is to locate it so that it experiences wind representative of that which is going to spread the hazardous material over shorter distances.
As regards wind sensors intended to support of site plans and potentially to be used by the emergency services or in plotting dispersion of toxic plumes, this is a real quagmire with little guidance available that I can see. This issue is attracting some interest in the Royal Meteorological Society Special Interest Group on Observing Systems and I would be very interested in the views of IOSH members or anyone who is involved in installing wind instruments at COMAH sites or in assessing the fitness for purpose of the installation.
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Guide lines on Wind Socks located near hazardous materials
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