When safety becomes a hazard
This month: When Safety becomes a hazard Isle of Anglesey County Council have just experienced the threat posed by irresponsible disposal of marine flares when a resident hid five expired marine flares in their bin used to collect green garden waste for composting. “This is a totally irresponsible act that put many people in danger,” said Jonathan Eastwood, Acting Chief Waste Management Officer at the Council. “There are laws concerning how you dispose of marine flares and easy ways of disposing of them safely. Someone has not just put these accidentally into their rubbish bin, they have hidden them under a layer of green waste. The reason why this is illegal is that these flares could have gone off, hurting people, setting light to vehicles and equipment and damaging facilities.” The drivers of the vehicle were lucky as the flares had escaped being crushed in the compactor in the collection lorry. If the flares had been crushed and gone off they would have set light to the hydraulics and any dry materials, creating a fire.” Many people may not realise that it is illegal to put flares in their rubbish bin, let alone a green waste bin. In September last year part of a Hampshire Marina was closed off when a marine flare ignited in the back of a bin lorry during compaction. The fire and rescue service had to dump the rubbish on the ground to extinguish the fire and the yard had to be cordoned off by the police. Read the full News Release
Keeping a check
Flares are a very effective means of signalling distress at sea. It is essential however, that when you come to use such devices they can be relied upon to both work as expected and to not pose a risk to the operator or those surrounding them. With a combination of the volatile nature of the materials used and the maritime environment in which they are intended to be used, flares have a limited useable shelf life. As a result the manufacturers must define a date by which the flares are certified as safe to be used and likely to remain effective. After this date, it is essential that they are replaced with in date flares and those that are out-of-date are disposed of responsibly.
Make sure you make regular checks on the flares on your boat to ensure they are in date and undamaged.
Responsible disposal
Recreational users will have very small amounts of out-of-date flares to dispose of and there are few, if any, commercially-based means of returning them to the manufacturer for disposal. In the UK the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have made provision for collecting flares for disposal and details can be found using the direct.gov link below.
Please note it is illegal to dispose of out-of-date flares by setting them off to practice or in the mistaken belief that they are some form of firework.
How and where
For more information on responsible disposal of out-of-date flares
Think SAFE – Dive SAFE
Jim Watson
BSAC Safety and Development manager
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