CONTRACTOR SAFETY IN SPILL RESPONSE1

ABSTRACT Oil spills are fortunately not a daily event. However, when they do occur, many people are emotionally stirred into wanting to contribute to the clean up. These volunteers (e.g. Nakohdka, Erika, Prestige spills) and contractors come from a myriad of backgrounds and skills. They want to be assigned meaningful roles so they can feel ‘useful’. The additional risks imposed on the overall management of the spill response must be carefully assessed and managed. All responders will inevitably be exposed to health and safety issues in the response. It is important to advocate health and safety during peace time to eliminate the exposure of the responders and contractors to potential hazards during an actual response. The challenge is to identify appropriate training standards that will ensure the competence of contractors’ knowledge and awareness of safety protocols during a response. Properly trained contractors are an invaluable asset during a spill response where they are effectively integrated into the overall response structure. Trained contractors in Singapore have been tested in real time exercises and were incorporated successfully in actual spill responses. During spill response, contractors have safely participated in the response and clean-up activities. It has been demonstrated that contractors who have undergone training have a higher level of safety awareness as compared to those that have not undergone training. This paper will discuss generally our training for contractors during peace time and specifically the health and safety modules, personal protective equipment (PPE) usage, safe handling of oil spill equipment / chemical dispersants and expectations of an individual in a spill. The paper will also briefly discuss the assignment of ‘volunteers’ during a spill response on how their skills can be best deployed and utilized with keeping health and safety risks as low as possible.