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Home > Resources > Emergency Preparedness > Hazardous Materials (HazMat)
Hazardous Materials (HazMat)
Grainger has the products and services you need to help you prepare for, respond to, and recover from all hazards, including HazMat spills and leaks.
Every day, businesses of all sizes use and transport hazardous products as a part of their daily work, often without thinking about the risks involved. Specific plans and actions vary with the type of materials that are involved.
Building a Preparedness Plan
A comprehensive emergency plan that has been communicated and tested with your personnel will help minimize loss to your business. Be sure to have personnel trained on CPR and First Aid, and compile an easily accessible emergency kit. FEMA, OSHA, and NIOSH have published recommendations on building preparedness plans.
If you are interested in more customized Business Continuity Planning assistance, contact your Grainger representative. One of our regional specialists work with you and your Account Manager.
Preventing HazMat Incidents
Prevention is always the best and most important action to take. Hazardous materials come in many forms, including explosives, flammable and combustible substances, poisons, and radioactive materials.
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Prevention Tips
- Identify and label all hazardous materials stored or handled in your facility, and make sure that material safety data sheets (MSDS) for all hazardous materials are readily accessible.
- Read all labels carefully and always follow handling and disposal guidelines
- Use only approved containers, and do not overload or overfill containers
- Treat empty containers with the same caution as filled containers
- Assure proper ventilation
- Do not handle hazardous materials if you have not been properly trained
- If you see any storage or handling errors or violations, report them immediately
Preparing for HazMat Incidents
Because Hazardous materials can take many forms and interact in varying ways, no list of items to prepare is comprehensive. Consider the nature of hazardous materials you work with and build your preparedness plan and select your products and equipment accordingly.
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Protection Tips
- Identify other facilities and highways, railroads and waterways near your facility that use or transport hazardous materials. Determine how an incident could effect your operations, and make sure your preparedness plan includes a response to this type of event.
- Always wear proper apparel when handling hazardous materials
- If there are additional environmental guidelines for handling the materials, e.g., ventilation standards, use them
- Make sure you are trained on proper handling techniques, and response guidelines if there is a release of the material
- Stay alert to other activity around you that could react and initiate an incident
Responding to HazMat Incidents
Immediate response is essential to limiting injuries and loss. Make sure that your plan has been clearly communicated to employees and tested. Activate your communication plan to ensure that all employees and visitors to your facility are accounted for, and make sure that First Responders have critical information on the event and injured people.
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Response Tips
- Call authorities immediately
- Vacate the area promptly, and stay upwind from the incident if it is outdoors. If required to remain inside, turn off all ventilation that brings in outside air.
- Seal all gaps to prevent leakage into safe area or outside of contamination zone.
- Attend to the injured and provide details as soon as emergency personnel arrive
- Confine the contamination ONLY if you are qualified to do so. If not, provide immediate access and information for authorized responders.
Recovering from HazMat Incidents
Data from past disasters has shown that 40% of businesses that close after a disaster never reopen, so getting back to normal quickly is essential to your business and your employees.
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Recovery Tips
- Return to the facility only after it is safe to do so.
- Find out from authorities how to properly clean up your facility and equipment, and confirm that decontamination follows recommended protocols.
- Be sure to wear appropriate protective apparel and have adequate environmental controls in place throughout the cleanup process
- Review and revise procedures, and implement physical changes as needed to prevent a future incident
- Report ongoing signs of continuing contamination to management and authorities as required
Grainger Services
Grainger provides special emergency services to our customers and their communities.
After-hours Emergencies
When an emergency occurs after business hours, call 1-800-CALL-WWG (1-800-225-5994) and we will open a branch for you. A $50.00 fee may apply.
Emergency Support Teams
When an emergency unfolds, we have a plan in place that quickly mobilizes internal and external resources to assist troubled communities.
Extended Hours and Personnel
During major emergencies, Grainger branches stay open 24 hours (unless curfews are imposed by local authorities). Additional personnel are brought in to take orders, assist customers at the counter, and load trucks. Our Call Centers are able to accept phone orders 24 hours a day.
Essential Product Availability
Within hours of an emergency, trailers containing critical products are dispatched to support the relief effort. Contingency plans with our suppliers allow us to provide additional equipment quickly
Additional HazMat Resources
The Ready Rating Program provides an easy, actionable framework to help any organization assess their readiness and build and implement response plans.
Ready When the Time Comes, a corporate volunteer program, taps the human resources of corporate America.
