Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ).

At Linde we are driven to ensure no harm comes from our actions to people, the environment or the communities in which we operate. Every day we operate with discipline and a commitment to continuous improvement in Safety, Health, Environmental & Quality. Whether you are an employee, a contractor, or a visitor: If you are in a Linde plant, vehicle or office, we want you to get home safely.

Zero Today means we are driving toward zero incidents and zero injuries today and every day.  The Values, Commitments and Safety Principles in our Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Policy are the foundation for Zero Today at Linde, and our core value of Safety keeps us focused every day on what matters most: the well-being of our people, the environment and the communities in which we operate.

Linde is signatory to the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) Responsible Care Global Charter and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) Responsible Care Guiding Principles. With these commitments, Linde joins chemical manufacturers around the world in the pursuit of safe chemicals management and performance excellence.

We put safety first. We believe all incidents are preventable, and our goal is no harm to people, communities or the environment. We continuously work to improve our safety culture and performance worldwide.

Linde wants to deliver the highest levels of HSE performance by having a strong HSE culture.  This always requires us to exhibit behaviors that reflect that we place the highest value on avoiding harm to people, the environment and the communities in which we operate. We show the same regard for the health, safety and care for the environment within the communities in which we operate, as we do for our own employees and within our own working environments.  Building trust and maintaining good relations with the community helps us build a sustainable business.

The LSR have been developed based upon our experience with the incident that has been occurred within Linde worldwide. It re-enforces the critical area of our safety management system that presume a high risk of serious injuries and fatalities, if not followed.

The purpose of the Life-Saving Rules is to prevent fatalities and fatality potential events (FPE).

- Implementing them is the first step towards world class HSE performance and culture. They create awareness and put controls in place to mitigate high risk activities in our operations.
- The Life-Saving Rules focus on the most important safety aspects based on past incidents and events experienced by companies around the world. They also reflect legal and regulatory requirements that apply in countries where Linde operates.
-The Life-Saving Rules reinforce those critical areas of our management system that, if not followed, present a high risk of fatality and FPE. Particular emphasis must be given to the Life-Saving Rules to ensure they are adhered to at all times.

Disregard of the Life-Saving Rules will be dealt with by line management in the same manner as any other serious misconduct or breach of a Linde policy or rule, by the appropriate application of consequence management or disciplinary actions.

Our SHEQ management system is driven by the country requirements, Linde Standards, customer requirements, industry specific standards & we also following ISO (9001, 45001 & 14001) for our operations site.

Operational Safety deals with matters concerning safe work conditions and safe work practices in the production and supply of product and/or services.  It's fundamental objective is to provide work practices, rules and processes which enable an acceptable level of safety to exist with harm avoided.

Operational Safety is divided into two streams for each of central management, namely "Personnel Safety and "Industrial Hygiene".  In fundamental terms, Personnel Safety deals with management processes whilst Industrial Hygiene deals with workplace surroundings and conditions.

Personnel Safety addresses matters which directly or indirectly impact on avoiding injury to all people that could be affected by a deficiency in an aspect of operations.  This includes employees, contractor workers, temporary workers and visitors.  It does not lead in specialist subject matters such as Behavioral Safety or Process Safety, however it compliments relevant requirements.

Personnel Safety includes a wide range of subjects.  Typical examples demonstrating the scope are:
- Incident Management
- Permit to Work System
- Contractor Selection and Management
- Management of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Planned Workplace Inspections
- Dynamic Risk Assessment and Hazard Identification
- Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessments
- Safety in specific work environments, e.g., Office Safety, Construction Site Safety
- Traffic management on sites
- Site Induction
- Safety communications
- Management and use of Personal Protective Equipment
- Competency Management (training, coaching and evaluation)
- Slips, trips, and falls.

Transport Safety focused on the protection of life and property by the reduction of major vehicle incidents through the development of standards/minimum requirements regarding the management of vehicles, drivers, and contractors; and the implementation of technology for all forms of transportation, including commercial vehicles (CV) and non-commercial vehicles (NCV).

Off-Site Safety focused on the protection of life and property by eliminating major incidents at customer/delivery sites through standardization, best practices, and defined requirements for the management of drivers, technicians and contractors.  Off-site safety includes Customer Engineering Services (CES), R&D and Applications.

Behavioral Safety in Linde is a global program that aims to create a One Linde HSE culture where interdependent behavior between leaders, management, employees, and contractors continually focuses people's attentions and actions on theirs, and others, daily safety behaviors.

The central underlying principle of the Linde Behavioral Safety Program is the belief that all incidents and injuries (including occupational illnesses) are preventable and are a result of "unsafe acts" or "at-risk" behaviors by people (directly or indirectly, intentional, or unintentional.

These behaviors are activated by influencing factors (e.g., working environments, effectiveness of communication, leadership attitudes and behaviors, etc.) and reinforced by positive and negative outcomes (e.g., recognition, getting the job done ahead of schedule, etc.).

Behavioral safety targets specific behaviors and aims to change "unsafe acts" by using appropriate tools and techniques for observing behaviors during routine and non-routine workplace activities and engaging in risk-based coaching conversations (either manager/supervisor to worker or peer-to-peer between workers).

A vital part of an effective coaching approach is the use of recognition (not reward) to positively reinforce the desired expected, or exceptional, behaviors so that they become habitual and strengthen our safety culture.

The Linde Behavioral Safety Program is not a standalone solution to creating safety culture change.  The other elements of an effective safety management system, such as Standards and Policies, Process Safety Management, etc. are equally as important.

However, instilling effective behavioral safety practices are a vital part of building a successful and sustainable safety culture.  Behavioral safety strengthens the safety management system by driving greater operating discipline where there is a strong commitment to follow standards and procedures ("Everyone does it right the first time and every time").

Process Safety Preventing the release of hazardous materials or energy from our operating facilities. Process Safety focuses on minimizing the risk of incidents involving the release of hazardous materials, energy, fire, and explosions at production plants. There are 14 elements of process safety management system (PSM) under four subcategory:

1. Commit to Process Safety
2. Understand Hazards & Risks
3. Manage Risk
4. Learn from Experience

There is site specific emergency response plan (ERP). The ERP covers the following points:

- Area Location (details site layout)
- Hazard scenario & risk mitigation
- Emergency Procedure
- Emergency Contact Numbers (internal & external)
- Fire Protection System
- Communication & Organization 
- Emergency response team (ERT)
- Plan review & Maintenance
- etc.

Audit/assessment of SHEQ subjects is used to verify compliance with internal standards and external regulations.  More importantly, it is a way to provide an independent view of safety program implementation, which aids in achieving our goal of zero accidents/zero incidents by identifying weaknesses and highlighting best practices to be shared with other locations and businesses.

Assessments are generally broken down into the following broad areas and any of these subjects may be audited at the facility level or overall business level (e.g., Country, RBU, etc.):

- Safety, Health, and Environment is typically focused on physical safety topics at a facility or business, including Process, Operational, Distribution/transport, Occupational Health/Industrial Hygiene, Environmental, Security, etc.
- Medical/GMP Quality Compliance is typically focused on the production, handling, and distribution of gases to ensure that products shipped are in compliance with local, state, national, international regulations and Linde GMP and medical quality standards.
- Pharmacovigilance reviews programs which ensure collection and reporting of events which do, or could, impact patient safety when using medical products or devices. This includes local management of incident reporting, PV vendor qualification and audit, etc.

”At Linde we comply with product and service Quality based on requirements determined by our customers, our own Quality standards and by regulatory authorities” to ensure-
- Productivity
- Customer expectation
- Operational Excellence
- Laws & Regulatory requirements
- Overall Effective Management System   

Linde Quality Management system consist of Quality Control and Quality Assurance section to ensure all the products manufactured and released as per GxP Requirement. All the products are marketed and distributed under Regulatory body of Bangladesh and Linde Global Guidelines.  

For testing medical product, Linde follow the European Pharmacopoeia (EP) standard and DGDA guideline as these are directly related with the wellbeing of the patients. For testing industrial and food grade products, Linde follow the own product specification along with ISBT guideline accepted by all customer and governing bodies. LBL manufacturing plants are certified on ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management system) both for gases & electrodes.

Today, everyone is aware of the impact that human activities are having on the environment. Particular concern is often expressed over chemical and heavy industrial processes. Linde is very mindful of its responsibilities to the communities it serves.  It seeks to implement best practice in all of its activities and also to recognise and promote environmentally beneficial behavior. L

inde has established an Environmental Policy (within the HSE Policy) and philosophy that expects us to comply with environmental laws and regulations (as a minimum), to prevent pollution as well as protecting the environment and communities in which we work.  This provides policy to guide the company to act in a responsible manner and avoid some of the risks associated with environmental issues.

Medicines and vaccines have transformed the prevention and treatment of diseases. In addition to their benefits, medicinal products may also have side effects, some of which may be undesirable and / or unexpected. Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other medicine/vaccine related problem. 

As we are dealing with medical product like oxygen, nitrous oxide, medical air & medical CO2; we are also align with the requirement of PV.   Pharmacovigilance (PV): 

–        Monitor and report any complaint or adverse drug reaction/side effects associated with Linde Medical Products to Vigilance Team within four days from the day of awareness.
–        Collaborate with Drug Administration and scientific association as per regulatory requirement.
–        Review scientific and medical journal.

Linde pursues a concept of holistic product responsibility, or product stewardship. This requires compliance with clear criteria.

It involves identifying and evaluating possible hazards and risks that may stem from a product throughout all stages of its life cycle. The risk potential is assessed in relation to design, supplier, employees, the neighborhood, customers and the environment. The aim is then to avoid or at least minimize these risks to ensure people’s safety.