The impressive fire of industrial sites in Grand-Couronne (Seine-Maritime), near Rouen, on January 16, awakened the memory of Lubrizol. And concerns about stored products. The building rented by Bolloré Logistics contained some 12,000 lithium batteries. On Twitter, Internet users wondered about the regulations concerning the storage of these batteries.
A post, shared a hundred times, claims that there is, in France, “no legislation on the storage of lithium batteries”. This assertion is based on a screenshot of the website of Cemo, a company of secure storage equipment sold for the construction industry, the agricultural, industrial or community sectors.
FAKE OFF
On its website, the company from the Lyon metropolitan area indeed indicates “that there are no regulations yet for the storage of lithium batteries”, “which means that everything is permitted”. But it is also specified in the legal notices that the site “does not in any way guarantee the accuracy, precision or completeness of the information made available”. Contacted to find out if this information was up to date, the company has not yet responded.
However, for Benoît Sallé, expert in advisory assistance at the National Institute for Research and Safety for the Prevention of Workplace Accidents and Occupational Diseases (INRS), this information deserves to be clarified and supplemented. Firstly, “there are regulations on storage imposing resources, except that you have to be subject to ICPE environmental regulations”, that is to say on installations classified for the protection of the environment.
A regulation on storage from a threshold
“There are thresholds, if you exceed them, you are subject to the regulations,” he explains. This applies by type of product (flammable, toxic, corrosive, etc.) or by activity (room for charging batteries, storing products, etc.). ” Here [dans le cas du bâtiment loué par Bolloré Logistics], we are more on a regulation by activity, he adds. And, given the size of the repository, it had to be subject to this ICPE regulation, just like Lubrizol was. »
For a logistics warehouse, this is heading 1510 of the ICPE on the storage of combustible materials, products or substances in covered warehouses which applies. From 5,000 m3, storage is subject to declaration with the associated requirements. The more the volume increases, the more the requirements are strict as for the installations subject to authorization.
Good practices
“At the level of environmental regulations, there are no specificities in these texts on storage, it can be wood or batteries, the prescriptions will be the same”, underlines Benoît Sallé. While it is true that lithium batteries are not classified as hazardous materials, “the approach is the same for gas cylinders”, he notes, because “the classification of products responds to rules” . In addition, the regulations on the Labor Code apply “since there is an obligation to ensure the health and safety of its employees”, adds the advisory assistance expert.
In a document, the INRS detailed the good practices concerning the storage of lithium batteries. The institute recommends storing in ventilated areas or premises, with impermeable floors or in airtight containers to prevent soil and subsoil pollution and to be protected from humidity, heat sources and temperature variations. To prevent fires, all sources of ignition must be avoided and the batteries must not be shocked to minimize the risk of thermal runaway or battery malfunction.