As most of you know huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Massive cleanup effort is supposed to be starting soon. In the USA federal regulations are in place to protect the cleanup workers (OSHA- specifically 29CFR 1910.120 can be viewed at http://www.osha.gov/pls/...=standards&p_id=9765) What regulations would cover cleanup works if it were a cleanup on UK shores, and would those regulations provide better protection? Why? looking for a lively discussion...and to learn.

Thanks, your first part did describe what we have going on, just different organizations. There is a national contingency plan and each region (state) has a plan, they are integrated to a certain respect. Response is a massive mobilization effort. The agency(s) have established a unified command, including the responsible party -web site at http://www.deepwaterhori...sponse.com/go/site/2931/ Federal OSHA is poking around and “offering” assistance but the do not clean up oil spills and cannot take charge. Environmental (EPA) is doing studies and controlling permits ect, but not actually cleaning the shore, Coast Guard is likely the most active but mostly in the water. The Responsible party will be controlling the clean up, hiring workers and training them, deploying them in to control zones and supervising them. Think you are right about people implementing the response, it is crucial. We both know it does not matter what side of the Atlantic you are on when it comes to compliance with law. There is a huge difference and it goes from company to company. So if we were in full compliance with our respective laws, what would each one look like? You mentioned a “s.w.p? not sure what that is, but if we take the task of cleaning weathered crude oil from shore side boulders- our rules in a generic sense would require: Written plan for the area and task specific written plan (JSA) Written site emergency plan with rescue and first aid provisions New technology evaluation procedures prior to wide scale use Workers have to be trained in hazards (contaminate and work site) and how to protect themselves Zones established [such as red (gross contaminated) yellow (possible contaminated) green (no known contamination) white (everywhere else)] Positive control of zones. Use incident command system to control zones, workers and rescuers if needed. Is this similar? Thanks!

Gray, whoops pressed the button too soon. A bit of bedtime reading for you at 122 pages. You can find a copy of the National Contingency Plan here. A quick scan of the index will give you some idea of the scale and detail. http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-contin.pdf p48