Abschnitt 4 - 4 Instruction
General
According to DGUV Regulation 1 "Principles of Prevention", instruction must be given before starting work and at least once a year. This obligation is laid down, for example, in accident prevention regulations, the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances and the Industrial Safety and Health Ordinance.
The contents of the instruction and the participants must be documented. The integration of practical excercises, especially fire-fighting excercises, rapid removal of PPE, has proved to be very useful. The instruction should be based on the contents of procedural operating instructions.
Activities relating to magnesium
In the following, the main focus is on organisational and behavior-based measures.
Inappropriate behavior can cause severe personal injury and property damage. For this reason, employees must be familiar with the topics listed in the checklists (see Annex 1), have a high level of safety awareness and observe the corresponding protective measures. Due to the hazards involved in activities relating to magnesium, magnesium processing areas should be separated from other areas, as far as possible. Access to these areas should only be granted to employees who have been specially instructed.
Special caution is required during maintenance and the employment of external companies, as in most cases, the maintenance personnel or the personnel of external companies do not work with magnesium on a daily basis. Accordingly, these personnel have to be instructed in advance specially on the hazards, the protective measures and the behavior in the event of malfunction.
As part of the instruction, comprehensive information on the characteristics and hazards of magnesium and its fire and explosion behavior is absolutely essential (see also Clause 1 "Magnesium-related hazards").
This knowledge can be imparted in the course of a regularly conducted practical fire-fighting exercise. The use of the correct extinguishing agent, its storage location and the appropriate PPE and protective clothing against magnesium fires should be discussed. Under these conditions, the instructed enployees can then extinguish small incipient fires on their own.
DGUV Leaflet Fachbereich AKTUELL FBHM-043: "Brand an Werkzeugmaschinen - Was ist zu beachten?" (English title: "Fire on machine tools - What has to be considered?") provides guidance on instruction concerning the adequate behaviour in case of a machine tool fire.
Annex I contains a checklist of instructional topics that are important for activities relating to magnesium.
 | Notification |
|---|---|
| Employers should inform the responsible accident insurance institution before starting work with magnesium for the first time. In addition to the accident insurance institution, the responsible fire protection office should be informed as well. | |