Our safety management focuses on prevention. However, safety-critical events cannot always be avoided. Since 2013, we have been using SPIRIT, our new IT sustainability reporting system, to register all incidents across the group relating to safety, health and the environment. The reports are evaluated and measures taken. Where other divisions and sites could learn from incidents, reports are compiled and submitted to corporate entities with similar risk potential.

At our largest site in Burghausen, employees have been able to file online reports on safety-critical situations quickly and unbureaucratically since 2013. The reports are forwarded from the database to the supervisor, who acts on them immediately. The supervisor informs any colleagues at risk and works with them to devise a way of defusing the danger.

Every WACKER site has its emergency response plan detailing cooperation between internal and external emergency response teams, and with the authorities. Once a year, the plant fire departments at our largest sites, Burghausen and Nünchritz, conduct emergency drills coordinated with the local fire and emergency services. These drills provide a practical opportunity to rehearse a large-scale emergency response. Afterward, the exercise is analyzed to identify and eliminate any weak points. Training drills are regularly carried out at our major foreign sites, such as Zhangjiagang and Nanjing in China, too.

Not only do WACKER’s plant fire departments train fire departments from the local area – they also invite the fire departments of other companies and municipalities to WACKER sites, where they can prepare their response to accidents involving hazardous goods.

TUIS: Accident Assistance

The German chemical industry established its Transport Accident Information and Emergency Response System (TUIS) (German-language webpage only) in 1982 to provide assistance in the event of chemical accidents. WACKER was involved in this network right from the start. Today, TUIS comprises some 130 chemical companies, along with their plant fire departments and specialists (chemists, toxicologists, production experts, etc). Public services, such as fire departments, police and disaster control agencies, can contact TUIS for telephone consultation services or request specialized equipment or assistance from experts. TUIS is part of the German chemical industry’s contribution to the Responsible Care^® initiative. WACKER’s TUIS experts can be called on to assist with accidents involving our products anywhere in the world.