Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 91
adapted them accordingly. ACTEGA Rhenania launched a
health program called “Back Fit.” After an introductory
talk with a qualified trainer, further training sessions were held
at the respective workplace with the aim of preventing
harm and injuries due to improper sitting. In the course of
the coronavirus pandemic, health courses such as Back Fit
and yoga were offered online and some of the annual Safety
and Health Days carried out as digital impulse lectures. The
newsletter “SAFETY @ ALTANA” provided information on how
to work ergonomically, healthily, and safely from home.
Safety in Chemical Processes
The risk of accidents and incidents resulting from chemical
processes can be significantly reduced by regularly and systematically
checking the respective process steps. This applies
not only to the handling of chemical substances, but also
to typical process steps in operations such as heating, cooling,
and stirring.
BYK was able to significantly improve process safety,
especially for reactions that release a lot of heat, by introducing
a reaction mixing pump at the Kempen site. This pro-
cess ensures very effective cooling of the reaction mixture.
ECKART installed more temperature sensors at its
Painesville site, especially in the mills. This allows unforeseen
temperature increases to be detected promptly and appro-
priate measures to be initiated.
Inert gases, such as nitrogen, are used in the chemical
industry to prevent uncontrolled ignitions caused by elec-
trostatic charges. But these protective gases can pose a danger
to employees if there is accidental leakage, for example
in production halls. For this reason, oxygen sensors were installed
in the mill room at the ECKART site in Schererville,
among others. At the same site, process safety was further
enhanced with additional measures. For example, an alarm
system was installed in the event of accidental spills, and spill
prevention was installed in tank farms.
Furthermore, ALTANA continued to invest in protecting
employees from critical substances (for example dusts and
VOCs) in the year under review. Among other things, existing
ventilation systems at ECKART in Wackersdorf and at
ELANTAS in Zhuhai were improved.
Communication as a Success Factor
Information and communication play a decisive role in bolstering
an effective safety culture. Accidents that occur with
significant frequency and relevance are, for example, presented
in the global ALTANA staff magazine together with
strategies for their prevention.
In Germany, BYK has been cooperating since 2017 with
the German Employers’ Liability Insurance Association for
the Raw Materials and Chemical Industry (BG RCI) on “Vision
Zero,” a program whose aim is to prevent accidents completely.
Since that time, occupational safety performance has
not only been gauged via the conventional indicators (WAI
1 – 3), but has also been further developed in an occupational
safety program, the “Vision Zero Roadmap.” Key activities
are assigned to the Vision Zero success factors and communicated
transparently to all employees. With regard to the
success factor “Danger recognized – danger averted,” BYK
introduced a new electronic reporting system for acci-
dents and near misses in the reporting year. This enables near-
accidents to be identified in a timely manner, prompt measures
to be implemented, and thus accidents to be avoided.
ACTEGA DS in Bremen established the “Vision Zero”
working group in mid-2019. By the end of the reporting year,
the company had gone more than 500 days without registering
an accident with lost work time. This milestone was
achieved by means of various measures, including the tar-