Participants at the Courses on Chemical-Safety Management for Trainees from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held in Germany in November 2014. Photo Credit: Sven Adrian
The Government of Germany and the OPCW jointly organised two parallel training courses on chemical-safety management from 3 to 7 November 2014 at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal (BUW). The first course targeted the Africa region and the second the regions of Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean, with 17 qualified participants in all from 17 States Parties.*
The two courses were supported with a voluntary contribution from the Federal Foreign Office, Government of Germany. It was the fifth course on chemical-safety management held at the BUW for States Parties in Africa, and the first course for Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Each of the courses was carefully tailored to accommodate the specific needs of the targeted regions in terms of chemical-safety management. They covered relevant legislation, operational and environmental risks, fire, explosive and toxic hazards, hazard assessment, and CBRNE protection, with discussions on process-control engineering, manipulation of protection devices, and safety management.
The courses also covered disaster management, emergency response and risks associated with human factors, with practical exercises conducted in a laboratory and at a mini-plant especially built at the BUW for such training. Study visits were undertaken to a chemical plant in the region, Axalta, as well as to Inburex, an independent international company providing services in all fields of industrial and process safety.
* Africa course: Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda. Other regions: Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Uruguay.