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Learning safety lessons from submarines
SAFETY advisors from British Nuclear Group recently visited BAE Systems in Barrow to see how BAE Systems Submarines manage and control working in confined spaces.
The visit was prompted by a recent article in the Safety and Health Practitioner (SHP) periodical- the official magazine of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
Paul Buchanan, safety advisor, British Nuclear Group, said: "After reading the article in the SHP I decided it would be beneficial for safety advisors to visit BAE Systems as part of a benchmarking exercise to see first hand how they have developed the management and control of working in confined paces. They have worked closely with the Health and Safety Executive and their arrangements have been identified as being best practice.”
“Whist the work of building a submarine and the actual process of managing those confined spaces is not directly applicable to British Nuclear Group, there was some learning for our company including training issues and the gas testing equipment used which will be discussed at our next Lead Confined Space Safety Advisors meeting."
Joshua Rice, secretary of the North Cumbria district of IOSH, said: "This visit included being taken on to Ambush, the second Astute Class Submarine, which had a number of restrictive and confined space work areas. It clearly demonstrates the challenging work environment being managed by BAE Systems. It is important for the profession to undertake \'knowledge sharing\' visits such as these so that we can learn from the experiences of other organisations. This visit has proved that different businesses can learn from each other to improve safety management and this should be encouraged.”
The party also looked at the arrangements in place for managing and controlling hand arm vibration during the visit.
It is now the intention to arrange an exchange visit for members of the BAE Systems Safety Team to visit British Nuclear Group at Sellafield, to build a knowledge sharing network.
