Regulation 5(5) is the one people miss. New work with a dangerous substance cannot lawfully start until the assessment has been made and the measures put in place.
It is worth reading it exactly as written, because paraphrases soften it.
"No new work activity involving a dangerous substance shall commence unless — (a) an assessment has been made; and (b) the measures required by these Regulations have been implemented."
Regulation 5(5), Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002
There is no threshold in that sentence, no exemption for small installations and no grace period. It is a gate on commencement.
Diesel, heating oil, petrol, LPG, solvents, alcohol. Bunding, vent positions and separation distances all follow from the assessment and any zoning, so the assessment has to come first.
The booth manufacturer will give you an ATEX declaration for the booth. That is not an assessment of your building with the booth in it, and the zone does not stop at the booth wall.
Wood, grain, flour and metal dusts. Ducting, filters and the collection vessel are usually where the explosible atmosphere actually sits, not the machine.
Retail or commercial. Adding a pump to a farm or depot yard is a new work activity even though the fuel was already on site.
Biogas is a dangerous substance and an AD installation is one of the clearest cases in the Regulations.
Lead-acid charging gives off hydrogen. A charging bay that used to hold two trucks and now holds ten is a changed activity, not the same one.
Hazardous area classification is not paperwork that follows the build. It is the thing that decides what equipment you are allowed to install, where ventilation has to go, how far apart things must sit, and where an ignition source can and cannot be.
Done at design, it is a drawing and a conversation. Done at commissioning, it is a change order. Done after an inspector's visit, it is a change order with a deadline on it.
There is also a straightforward buying point: you cannot correctly specify ATEX or UKEX equipment without knowing the zone. Buying explosion-protected kit before the zoning study is buying blind, and it is usually either over-specified and wasteful or under-specified and useless.
Regulation 5(5) of DSEAR is short and unambiguous: no new work activity involving a dangerous substance shall commence unless an assessment has been made and the measures required by the Regulations have been implemented. It is not guidance and it is not best practice. A new tank, a new booth, a new dispenser or a new dust extraction system is not lawfully allowed to run until the assessment exists.
Installing plant that handles a flammable or explosive substance, changing a process so that it does, moving an existing installation, or significantly increasing what you store. If you are asking the question, the honest answer is usually yes. Regulation 5(3) separately requires a review whenever there has been a significant change.
Yes. Regulation 7(4) requires that before a workplace containing hazardous-classified places is used for the first time, the overall explosion safety is verified by a person competent in that field. That is a distinct duty from the risk assessment itself, and it is the one most commissioning programmes forget.
Sometimes, and some of the better ones do. But the installer is not the duty holder. DSEAR puts the duty on the employer occupying the workplace, and an installer's certificate for their own equipment is not the same as an assessment of your workplace with that equipment in it.
At design, not at commissioning. Zoning drives equipment selection, ventilation, separation distances and where you can put an ignition source. Finding out after installation that a socket sits inside a Zone 1 is an expensive way to learn.
Then the commencement question is behind you, but the assessment duty is not. Assess it now, and if the zoning turns out to be different from what was assumed at installation, you will want to know that before an inspector does.
How zones are worked out and what the drawing has to show.
Which equipment category belongs in which zone, and why it matters.
The duty, the deliverable and where it fits with your other assessments.
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