Creating an Effective Emergency Plan According to ISO 14001
- Home
- Blog
Categories
Latest Post
ISO 14001 Lead Auditor Course
ISO 14001 Foundations Course
ISO 14001 Internal Auditor Course
ISO 14001 Lead Implementer Course
Having a personal emergency plan is a good idea, especially if you live in a high-risk area prone to earthquakes or other natural disasters. For example, you might plan to go to the smallest room that is most resistant to collapsing or fill a bathtub with fresh water in case of water supply interruption. Preparing an escape bag for evacuation is also wise.
If you run a small or medium company and have no emergency plan, it’s time to stop and think. Losing everything overnight is too risky. Setting up an emergency plan doesn’t require a Ph.D. in environmental science. Just follow these steps and improve your plan over time.
Purpose of an Emergency Plan
The aim of an emergency plan is to guide personnel during an accident or emergency to prevent or minimize injury, damage, and material loss. Another goal is to prevent or mitigate environmental impact from the accident or emergency.
ISO 14001 states in clause 4.4.7 (Emergency Preparedness and Response) that the organization must establish, implement, and maintain procedures to identify potential emergency situations and accidents. It must also respond to actual emergency situations and accidents.
A good emergency plan identifies major risks of accidents, defines preventive measures and key personnel, lists contact details, refers to safety data sheets (SDS) for dangerous substances, and specifies emergency equipment and response. The plan should be written and structured for quick and easy reading.
Explanation of Basic Terms
Before delving into details, let’s explain some basic terms. ISO 14001 does not define terms like incident, accident, and emergency. These terms are mainly used in Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). Here are simplified definitions to explain the basic differences:
- Incident: An unplanned, potentially harmful situation or event that does not result in environmental damage or other loss.
- Accident: An unplanned, potentially harmful situation or event resulting in environmental damage or other loss.
- Emergency: An unplanned situation or event involving public emergency services, police, or environmental regulatory authorities.
Steps in Setting Up an Emergency Plan
Follow these steps to set up your emergency plan according to ISO 14001 and based on good practice. Customize it to your specific needs.
Step 1: Identification
Identify specific potential accidents related to your circumstances and type of activity. For example, if you run an office, fire might be your only potential risk.
Types of accidents and emergencies include:
Fire
Chemical explosion
Spillage or release of corrosive, toxic, flammable, or carcinogenic materials
Step 2: Prevention
Brainstorm with your personnel to develop preventive measures for each type of accident. ISO 14001 states that emergency plans must include actions to prevent and mitigate associated environmental impacts.
Preventive measures depend on your specific situation and may include:
Regular inspections
Maintenance schedules
Safety training
Step 3: Develop the Emergency Plan
Depending on complexity and needs, establish one or more emergency plans. An emergency plan aims to:
Define types of accidents and environmental impacts (Step 1)
Define preventive measures (Step 2)
Provide contact information for key personnel (on-site and off-site)
Identify the location of technical data and emergency equipment
Highlight special instructions or actions
Identify and provide names of people trained in first aid
Ensure all staff know about the plan, where to find it, and its contents. They should know how to prevent accidents and what to do if one occurs. Review and revise the plan as necessary, especially after accidents or emergencies.
Step 4: Training and Drills
Train employees on preventive measures and the emergency plan, including necessary background information. However, training alone isn’t enough. People’s behavior can be unpredictable in real emergencies. Perform periodic drills based on predefined scenarios to ensure staff will react according to the plan. The frequency of drills depends on the risk level. For the average small to medium enterprise (SME), yearly drills are usually satisfactory.
Step 5: Evaluation and Improvement
Evaluate drill reports to identify gaps between the emergency plan and drill results. Focus on closing these gaps and making other improvements. For example, if free access for fire trucks is blocked during a drill, investigate why and take corrective actions to prevent it from happening again. This continuous improvement approach is fundamental to ISO 14001.
Even with the best preparation and prevention, accidents can still happen. When they do, being prepared ensures a fast reaction to minimize injury, environmental damage, and equipment loss, and avoids unnecessary calls to public emergency services.
