Manufacturing explosives

When you manufacture or store explosives you need to take appropriate measures to:

• prevent fire or explosion
• limit the potential extent of any fire or explosion
• protect people from the effects of any fire or explosion

The safety measures will depend on the nature of the operations and the explosive. Your first step should be to conduct a risk assessment.

When carrying out a risk assessment for explosives manufacturing, you need to consider the risks arising from associated activities such as:

• the manufacturing process itself
• transport and movement of explosives and other hazardous substances around your site
• disposal of explosives and decontamination of explosive-contaminated equipment
• cleaning, testing and quality control
• storage (including movements in and out of storage)
• maintenance

1. Prevent fire or explosion

Your primary safety responsibility as an explosives manufacturer is to control sources of energy that could initiate a fire or explosion.

The sources of ignition which need to be considered will depend on the conclusion of the risk assessment. In all cases, you must take precautions to exclude naked lights/flames. In other cases, depending on the results of the risk assessment, it will be necessary to consider:

• electricity (including static electricity and electromagnetic energy)
• sparks from mechanical or frictional contact between metal surfaces
• heat and temperature
• pressure
• impact and friction
• chemical incompatibility between certain substances

2. Limit the potential extent of any fire or explosion

You must take steps to limit the severity of the consequences of a fire or explosion, such as:

• managing stocks of explosive to limit the quantity of explosive in areas in which people are likely to be present
• limiting the number of people in areas where explosives are present
• keeping explosives away from flammable or combustible materials which could fuel a fire, and away from toxic substances which could be released in the event of a fire

3. Protect people from the effects of any fire or explosion

In the event of a fire, anyone in the immediate area of the explosives must be able to escape quickly and safely. You need to:

• establish a set of emergency procedures
• take necessary fire precautions
• install fire detection and warning systems
• provide means of escape and evacuation
• provide equipment for fire-fighting
• take measures to protect against explosion

For detailed information on best practice for all of these measures, you can download the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Approved Code of Practice (PDF, 1.7MB).