DSEAR Gas and Liquid Explosion Risk Assessment Training

Anyone carrying legal or operational responsibility for flammable gas and vapour explosion risk under DSEAR — particularly where solvent handling, gas storage, flammable liquid transfer or hazardous area classification put real compliance weight on the assessment.

• Site and operations managers
• Health and safety managers and advisers
• Compliance officers and EHS leads
• Facilities engineers and maintenance managers
• Process and production managers
• Appointed DSEAR duty holders and responsible persons

It is pitched above awareness level. Staff who work in or near hazardous areas but take no part in assessing the risk are better served by general awareness training.

Module 1 — Introduction to DSEAR
What the Regulations require of duty holders, and where they sit within the wider UK framework for controlling fire and explosion risk from flammable gases and from vapours released by flammable liquids. Covers how DSEAR is structured, the supporting guidance, the UK legislation around it and the European legal background it derives from.

Module 2 — DSEAR risk assessment overview
The purpose and scope of an assessment where the hazard is gas or liquid rather than dust, and how an explosive atmosphere actually forms. The Buncefield incident is used to work through the sequence, and the science behind vapour cloud explosions is translated into what it means when you are assessing a real site.

Module 3 — Risk controls and zoning
The hierarchy of control applied to explosive atmospheres: how to choose between measures, substitution, engineering controls, and hazardous area classification for gas and liquid risk — what zoning means and how it is done in practice. Also covers equipment categories, the principles behind selecting equipment, ratings and labelling, emergency preparedness and the place of PPE.

Module 4 — Controlling explosive gas and vapour: case study
The whole assessment method worked through a practical workplace example, from identifying the hazards and evaluating the risk to choosing controls, reviewing them and recording the findings.

• Explain what DSEAR requires wherever flammable gases and vapours create a fire or explosion risk.
• Describe how explosive atmospheres form, and how flash point, lower explosive limit and vapour density shape the risk.
• Identify the dangerous substances, release points and ignition sources a sound assessment has to account for.
• Read gas and vapour data — flash point, LEL, UEL, auto-ignition temperature and minimum ignition energy — and use it to judge how severe a hazard is and how much control it warrants.
• Work through the DSEAR hierarchy of control and recognise which measures carry the most weight in practice.
• Explain how hazardous area classification is carried out, how zones are defined, and how equipment selection is matched to the zone it will sit in.
• Structure, evaluate and document an assessment under Regulation 5 so the reasoning behind each decision is visible and defensible.
• Judge when an assessment can reasonably be handled in-house and when it needs specialist support.

The material also helps line DSEAR assessments up with related duties under general health and safety law, fire safety legislation, COSHH, PUWER and chemical safety requirements, rather than leaving each to be managed in isolation.

The course is approved by the International Institute of Risk & Safety Management. Assessment is a multiple-choice test taken entirely online, with 80% required to pass.

An IIRSM-approved digital certificate can be downloaded as soon as you pass, and remains valid for three years. Refreshing before that point keeps the certificate current and picks up any change in guidance or practice in the meantime.

Is this appropriate for general staff?
No — it is written for duty holders. If your people work in or around hazardous areas but have no role in assessing the risk, awareness-level training is the better fit and the more proportionate spend.

Does it cover combustible dust?
No. The scope here is flammable gases, vapours and liquids. Dust explosion risk is a separate course, because the hazard behaves differently and is assessed differently.

Will completing it make me competent?
No, and no training course can. It supplies knowledge and structured guidance. Competence is a judgement your employer has to make against the specific role, task and workplace arrangements, and completing the course does not in itself appoint anyone as a duty holder, responsible person or competent person.

Do I need particular equipment?
Any device with an internet connection. It runs on desktop, tablet and mobile, with iOS and Android apps available and subtitles in over twenty languages.

Can we buy places for a team?
Yes. E-learning licences can be bought in bulk on a single order, invoiced rather than paid by card, with the per-seat cost improving as numbers rise. Learners work through it in their own time.

• DSEAR dust explosion risk assessment — the combustible dust equivalent of this course.
• Dust in the workplace — guidance covering both the health and the explosion strands.
• COSHH training — for substances hazardous to health, as distinct from those dangerous by fire and explosion.
• Fire safety training — general fire precautions under the Fire Safety Order, which sit alongside DSEAR rather than inside it.
• High risk work training — explosive atmospheres alongside confined spaces, work at height and other high-hazard activities.
• Compliance training — the wider regulation-led course range.