3 Spill Control Risks Overlooked By Most Small Businesses

Spill control solutions aren't just for factories and large industries; from small businesses to garages, and even within the home, having some form of spill control makes a great deal of sense. The point is though that spill control needs to be approached from the perspective of how much risk is posed as a result of any potential spillage.

Clearly if the worst spillage possible within your working environment is perceived to be a dropped cup of tea, then the chances are that your spillage control solutions will involve little more than a few paper towels or similar absorbents.

However, there is another side to this, since all too often small businesses and offices overlook some of the potential spillages which could occur. For much of the time they may get away with this, but once a spillage does occur, in many case they are wholly unprepared for it, and this can lead to inconvenience, disruption, and even an increase in risk or danger to others.

For example, imagine the typical office environment; they may well have carried out the required safety checks and ascertained that in terms of spillage, the occasional cup of coffee knocked across a keyboard is the worst that could happen. This is most unlikely, and there are at least three spillage risks which have been overlooked.

The first potential spillage is bodily liquids. Unless the office in question is devoid of humans and run entirely by computers, people themselves pose a risk. The human body is 85% water, with around 8 pints of blood sloshing about and as much as half a litre of urine, quite apart from the various other less mentionable liquids being carried about the average office.

It only takes an illness, a slip, a cut or a fall, and anything from a minor spillage to a fairly major one could occur. In the case of bodily liquids it is essential to have spill kits to hand which are suited to this. Clearly a few paper towels are quite inappropriate, and the health risks alone would prohibit the dealing of such a spillage in this way. Spill kits are available in a wide range of forms, and it is essential to make sure that your spill control solutions are appropriate to the potential spillage.

If you have declared your only potential spillage to be a small cup of coffee, then dealing with a couple of pints of blood or half a litre of urine is going to present a major issue, and is likely to expose many people to danger. The longer a spillage is left untreated, the longer the disruption, and the greater the risk.

The second potential spillage may be caused by a power cut or circuit failure. It's so often overlooked, in spite of the fact that it seems a fairly frequent occurrence in many supermarkets. Fridge freezers are so commonplace they are often overlooked as potential issues, but between the condensation and the ice there can be a substantial amount of water locked up in such an appliance.

It only takes a short while following a malfunction, blown fuse, or power failure and a leak can quickly occur. This may well spreads across a hard surface floor, representing a real danger. Although it may be set upon with huge piles of paper towels, they are rarely of much use, unless you're prepared to work through half a roll of them. This is clearly expensive, as well as being less than green.

A spill control product more suitable to such a task might include an absorbent sock which can be placed around the perimeter of the spillage, thereby preventing it from spreading any farther. It is then possible to use more appropriate absorbents to deal with the spill itself.

A third possible spillage might involve any plumbing which may be present, including taps and bathroom facilities. A broken washer, burst pipe or other plumbing matter may well require significant and immediate spill control procedures to be put into place. If a pipe bursts, then a few paper towels are not going to be of much use. Yet should an employee slip and fall because such a spillage was not dealt with appropriately, the employer may well be liable to prosecution.

Spill control requires a careful and thorough analysis of all of the potential spillages that can occur, with appropriate spill kits in place to ensure that absorbents are available to deal with all of the possible risks and dangers inherent in spillages, no matter how unlikely.

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