- The Business Association for Safety, Hygiene, and the Environment in the Chemical Industry (COASHIQ) awards its annual prizes in a year in which recognizing best practices in industrial safety is more important than ever
- COASHIQ, which brings together around 200 companies, has rewarded the work of 37 companies in the sector in 3 different categories
The Business Association for Safety, Hygiene, and the Environment in the Chemical Industry, COASHIQ, has once again awarded its Annual Safety Management Awards. This year, the La Rábida refinery and the Cepsa chemical plant in Palos, as well as the refinery in Tenerife and the chemical plant in Puente Mayorga, San Roque-Cadiz, received their corresponding diplomas for having achieved a Zero Frequency Index, which represents the absence of accidents among the staff over the past year.
COASHIQ is a non-profit business association that works for safety and environmental protection in the chemical industry and related industries. It currently represents about 200 companies in the sector, and its objective is to be a meeting point for Occupational Risk Prevention professionals who work to improve the health and safety conditions for their staff, safety in industry facilities, and to integrate their activities into the social and environmental field.
For the first time, the award ceremony could not be held in person due to the public health emergency. With these 2020 awards, the Association recognizes the Cepsa centers and highlights once again the efforts to improve the accident rates and best practices in the field of safety based on the data collected in 2019.
In total, 37 awards were given in 3 different categories for this year: a prize for the Best Presentation; 10 congratulatory awards for the highest reduction percentage on the accident frequency index; 15 diplomas for having achieved a Zero Frequency Index, which represented no accidents in 2019, and 11 plaques for the companies that maintained this Zero Frequency Index for at least three consecutive years.
The companies recognized are centered in various locations throughout Spain: Barcelona, Madrid, Granada, Huesca, Castellón, Ciudad Real, and Tenerife, among others and are examples of efficient and effective management in the field of occupational safety.
At COASHIQ, its recently appointed President, Ángel Monzón, highlights the importance of “having once again recognized with these awards the work and roles played by companies that are examples of safety within the sector, thanks to the work of their ORP and Industrial Safety teams.” “2020 has been a year in which everyone responsible for safety has been forced to rethink how to address our operations. This has also meant that, now more than ever, we are all more aware of the activity carried out by those who care for and ensure our safety, in all fields, and we recognize their work, as well as the need to continue investing in prevention,” he added.
Cepsa and Safety
At Cepsa, safety is a historic and inseparable principle of its activity embodied by all employees and other companies with which it works. To achieve the safety objectives, the company conducts training programs and inspections, and it follows preventive standards and procedures.
Thus, the La Rábida refinery and the Palos chemical plant, in addition to meeting to the legal requirements of Law on Prevention of Occupational Hazards and the sever Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH), have a Health and Safety at Work Management System in place, pursuant to ISO 45000 2018, to eliminate the personal and industrial incidents/accidents that can happen.
Furthermore, within Cepsa, the HSE (Health, Safety and Environment) internal audit team submits the system to testing, using the international Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series audit criteria as a reference.
