Primary goal is the prevention of disasters in warehouses, such as fires, decomposition or even an explosion of AN based fertilizers. To achieve this goal distributors should:

• Store their product according to best practices warehouse standards.
• Have good knowledge on the safety environmental aspects of their products and non-conforming material
• Assess risk in storage
• Take measures to prevent accidents
• Have an Emergency plan in place discussed with the authorities.
• Manage storage operators (information and training)
• Maintain good house-keeping
• Maintain good book-keeping
  

Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996. on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances. Official Journal of the European Community L 10 , 14.1.97 pages 13-33 as amended by Directive 2003/105/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2003 Amending Council Directive 96/82/EC on the control of major-accidents hazards involving dangerous substances.OJ L345/97 31-12-2003.

Guidance for Safe Handling and Use of Non-conforming Fertilizers and Related Materials (Producers) 2003

EFMA's Leaflet Fertilizers and Fire, 2003

Guidance for Safe Handling and Utilization of Non-conforming Solid Fertilizers and Related Materials for Fertilizer Importers, Distributors and Merchants.2004

EFMA's leaflet short version Guidance for Handling Non-conforming Ammonium Nitrate Based Fertilizers in Distribution Chain 2005

Guidance for the Storage, Handling and Transportation of Solid Mineral Fertilizers

Best standard warehouse practices include many aspects regarding the construction, maintenance, etc.
Guidance for the Storage, Handling and Trasnportation of Solid Mineral Fertilizers(2007) contains information regarding these aspects. For further information see the also the other guidance documents as mentioned under EFMA requirements.

Distributors are obliged to fulfill the requirements of the COMAH Directive if they use, or store significant quantities of dangerous substances. See chapter 3.1.3.5.

Distributors should assess risks involved in storage. Based on this risk assessment proper measures should be taken and inspection should take place on a regular base.
Operators should well be aware of the safety and environmental aspects of the product and the procedures for storage and handling and should be trained accordingly.
A proper book-keeping of all material should be in place to enable batch traceability..

Storage operator

In case of company's external storage operator, the selection should include the assessment of the operator's HSE performance and the instructions, readily available to the storage operators, should specify requirements for:

• Warehouse and or liquid storage construction (see also chapter 3.1.7.1)
• SHE procedures
• Best practice operations to safeguard product quality.
• Competence
• Reporting and investigation of incidents
• Emergency preparedness and response (see also chapter 3.1.7.6.)
• Handling of non-conforming material (see EFMA's guidelines)
• Regular SHE inspections by storage manager
• Security precautions (see also chapter 3.1.7.5.)

Whether storages are Company owned or rented, safety data sheets and EFMA's leaflet on safe storage of AN based fertilizers should be made available and discussed with the storage operator.

Product identification

In order to make product identification in the store possible there should be procedure in place which includes a procedure for tracing back customers and a procedure for book-keeping of the amount of product and off-spec material.

Emergencies

see chapter 3.1.7.6.

Inspections

The company should regularly carry out and document inspections for company owned and rented warehouses for compliance with product quality, HSE and security instructions.
The company could offer to carry out inspections at customer's storage sites or give training to customers' operators on HSE and product quality issues.

Re-use and recycling on non-conforming material should be accordingly to EFMA's Guidance for Safe Handling and Use of Non-conforming Fertilizers and Related Materials (Producers) 2003.

A similar document has been published for fertilizer distributors in the chain.

Guidance for Safe Handling and Utilization of Non-conforming Solid Fertilizers and Related Materials for Fertilizer Importers, Distributors and Merchants.2004

Guidance non-conforming materials Distributors

From this document a short leaflet for display in warehouses has also been issued:

EFMA's leaflet short version Guidance for Handling Non-conforming Ammonium Nitrate Based Fertilizers in Distribution Chain 2005

Re-use and recycle of Packaging see chapter 3.1.4.6.

In response to the increased concern related to terrorism and misuse of fertilizers, EFMA recognises the need for addressing security in production, storage, transportation and sales of fertilizers. Hence, EFMA has updated its Product Stewardship program to cover this important topic in more depth and in accordance with recently expressed demands by the authorities. EFMA's recommendations for security measures are not made available in this description of EFMA's Product Stewardship program. It is available for EFMA members only and is part of the EFMA auditing system for evaluating the adherence to the recommendations amongst the members.

EFMA's recommendations for security measures.

Members Only

Click on logo to access

Distributors should have an emergency response plan in place which has been discussed with and agreed by the local authories. Responsibilites for providing guidance on emergency handling during storage should bee assigned and training should be carried out in cooperation with external emergency services at least annually,