According to Sec 41 B (4) of The Tamil Nadu Factories Act – 1948, Occupier the Every factory need to draw up an On-site Emergency plan and details disaster control measure for his factory and make known to the workers employed therein and to the general public living in the vicinity of the factory the safety measures required to be taken.
(a)In the case of a new industrial activity, before that activity is commenced
(b)In the case of an existing industrial activity within 90 days of commencing into operation of these rules.
The objective in emergency management planning is to ensure that everyone knows:
What are the hazards and risk in the plant?
What and how to do in the event of an emergency; and preparations for potential and unexpected incidents at the workplace.
The types of emergencies to plan for include fire, explosion, toxic releases, injuries and rescues in the hazardous events.
Plan improves local, district, state and national capacity to respond to disasters and public health emergencies, scaling up the actions with vulnerable communities in health promotion, disease prevention and disaster risk reduction.
As per our Indian regulations we have regulatory provisions that On-site Emergency Management Plan will be prepared by industrial units and Off-site Emergency Management Plan by District Collector for his/her District respectively.
Key elements of the On-Site Emergency plan Emergencies can happen at any time in any types of industry, due to fire in a process area, tank form area, toxic gas/liquid release into the area from storage vessels or piping network, or a bomb threat. The approach of the plan is to eliminate or reduce the risk of injury or harm that may occur during an evacuation by undertaking
(a)Classification and identifying potentially hazardous situations;
(c)Implementation and compliance of the regulatory provisions as per the Manufacture, Storage & Import of Hazardous Chemicals (MS and IHC) Rules 1989 and Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) [CA(EPPR)] Rules 1996 schedule;
(e)Statutory requirements;
(g)Emergency mitigation measures;
(i)Emergency response procedures and measures;
(k)Infrastructure requirements;
(m)Resources for controlling emergency;
(o)Medical facilities;
(q)Public relations and information to public;
(s)Emergency recovery procedures;
(u)Integration of the On-Site emergency plan with Off-Site emergency plan of the district and ultimately with Authority (NDMA) guidelines and action plan on Chemical (Industrial) Disasters;
(b)Assessment of the risks;
(d)Consequences of defaults or non-compliance of regulations;
(f)Pre-emergency planning;
(h)Emergency preparedness measures;
(j)Emergency organization and responsibilities;
(l)Procedures for declaration of on-site and off-site emergency;
(n)Demographic information;
(p)Evacuation;
(r)Reporting of the incident;
(t)Emergency plans for tank trucks and pipelines carrying hazardous products;
(v)Security threat plan and action plan to meet the eventualities;
(w)Provisions to disclose the information to the neighboring communities and confidence building with the community for symbiotic living, etc.
The overall points can be integrated and reflected in the figure which clearly indicates that good EMPs are based on the safety analysis, risk assessment, probabilistic analysis of scenarios, system modification for risk reduction, etc.
