Transport sector taints chemical industry’s safety record

The transport sector accounted for the most fatalities in South Africa’s chemical industry in 2009, according to the latest Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association (CAIA) Responsible Care report for 2010. Released in October the report found that while the chemical industry had made great strides in “greening” business processes and continued to perform well against international safety, health and environmental (SHE) benchmarks, road deaths in the transport of chemicals were on the rise. “The number of fatalities has increased dramatically in 2009 and storage and transport incidents are on the rise in member companies,” says Joaquin Schoch, chairman of CAIA. At least 14 people died in a transport-related incident in 2009, while only four fatalities occurred in other areas involving electrical and chemical operations. The reason for this trend is poor road conditions, the volume of vehicles on the road and general management of the duties of drivers. The Responsible Care report reflects quantitative data from 2008 and 2009 on a range of SHE performance indicators, including the storage and transportation of chemicals.