From Chemistry to Dangerous Goods Compliance: Andy Holton’s Journey and the Story of BADGP

What leads someone into a career in dangerous goods?

For Andy Holton, it started long before dangerous goods regulations, Safety Data Sheets or the role of Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser entered the picture. It began with a childhood fascination with science, numbers and discovering how things worked.

In this episode of The Cargo Couch, Logicom Hub’s Sam Stretton sits down with Andy to explore a career that has spanned chemistry, research, product stewardship, hazardous substances, dangerous goods transport and the creation of the British Association of Dangerous Goods Professionals (BADGP).

It is a fascinating look at how the dangerous goods profession has developed, how attitudes towards health and safety have changed and, perhaps most importantly, why professionals working in this industry need access to a knowledgeable community around them.

Where Does a Career in Dangerous Goods Begin?

For Andy, the journey began at primary school in Birmingham.

While other children were choosing novels or books about space from the school library, Andy repeatedly returned to a book called Man Must Measure.

The book introduced him to numbers, structures, measurement and scientific thinking. By the time he moved on to grammar school at the age of 11, that interest had developed into a fascination with chemistry and physics.

Chemistry quickly became the subject that captured his attention.

By his early teens, Andy already knew that he wanted to continue studying chemistry, eventually taking it through to university and then completing a PhD involving some particularly hazardous substances.

It is a reminder that careers in dangerous goods do not always begin with logistics or transport. Many professionals enter the industry through chemistry, manufacturing, warehousing, health and safety, freight forwarding, aviation or another specialist field before discovering the world of dangerous goods compliance.

Working With Some Seriously Hazardous Chemicals

Andy’s doctorate involved chlorine and fluorine chemistry.

Fluorine is an extremely reactive element, and his research also involved substances such as hydrogen fluoride – a particularly hazardous and corrosive material that presents significant challenges when it comes to handling and transport.

That experience meant Andy was dealing with chemical hazards long before dangerous goods compliance became the central focus of his career.
After completing his PhD, he joined what would later become ExxonMobil, initially working as a research chemist in lubricating additives.

His role involved developing chemicals designed to improve the performance of lubricating oils, including finding solutions to technical problems such as bearing corrosion.

It was highly specialised scientific work, but that technical understanding would later prove invaluable when Andy moved into other areas of the business.

From the Laboratory to the Customer

Andy’s career then took an unexpected turn when he was offered a role in sales.

Moving from research chemistry into sales may sound like a significant change, but his scientific background became one of his biggest strengths.

Rather than simply discussing price and availability, Andy could speak directly with technical personnel about the chemistry behind a product, understand their problems and explain how a particular material or additive might help.

That ability to connect technical knowledge with practical business requirements became an important theme throughout his career.

Dangerous goods professionals often find themselves doing something very similar today.

The regulations may be technical, but compliance is rarely achieved by knowing a regulation in isolation. Professionals need to understand how that requirement affects the people preparing, packing, storing, selling, transporting and receiving the product.

How Has Health and Safety Changed?

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation looks at just how dramatically attitudes towards health and safety have changed.

Andy recalls being able to obtain chemicals as a teenager and experiment with them in ways that would be almost unimaginable today.

The level of awareness surrounding chemical hazards was very different.

Looking back across his career, Andy describes the improvements in industrial health and safety as extremely positive. Better processes, increased knowledge and greater awareness have contributed to fewer accidents and incidents.

For Andy, effective health and safety does not simply mean putting restrictions in place. It means ensuring that the people carrying out a task have the knowledge, processes and appropriate protective equipment necessary to understand what they are doing and perform it safely. This is particularly relevant in dangerous goods.

Many regulatory requirements that exist today have developed as a result of lessons learned from previous incidents.

Historically, significant changes often followed serious accidents or disasters. Over time, those lessons have contributed to the detailed regulations and safety systems that govern the handling and transport of dangerous goods today.

What Is Product Stewardship?

Andy’s career moved closer to dangerous goods when he became involved in product stewardship.

He describes the Product Stewardship Manager as being a little like a spider sitting at the centre of a web.

The role brings together several different areas of responsibility, including:

• detailed product knowledge;
• understanding the hazards associated with a product;
• health and safety;
• relevant legislation;
• supply requirements;
• transport requirements;
• communication with customers; and
• responsibilities throughout the supply chain.

It is not enough to understand what a product is or what it does. The product steward also needs to understand the legislation controlling that product and make sure that customers receive the information they need to handle and use it appropriately.

That responsibility naturally leads to one of the most important documents in chemical safety: the Safety Data Sheet.

Why Safety Data Sheets Matter

During his time in product stewardship, Andy was responsible for authoring Safety Data Sheets for chemicals supplied in the UK.

A Safety Data Sheet brings together a significant amount of information about a substance or mixture.

Andy explains that while different specialists and laboratories may generate individual pieces of technical data, the person responsible for the SDS needs to make sure that everything comes together correctly.

From Section 1 through to Section 16, the information must not only be complete – it must be accurate.

That is a significant responsibility.

Safety Data Sheets play an essential role in communicating information throughout the supply chain, helping businesses understand areas including hazards, handling requirements, emergency measures and transport information.

They are not documents that should simply be created and filed away. The information they contain needs to be understood and applied.

Responsibility Does Not End at the Factory Gate

Another important point raised in the podcast is how quickly a supply chain can become complicated.

A manufacturer may supply a chemical to another company, which mixes it with another substance before selling it to another organisation, which then incorporates it into another formulation.

Very quickly, a product may have travelled through numerous stages before reaching its final user.

If a safety problem emerges, understanding where that problem originated can require tracing information back through the supply chain.

Andy uses this to illustrate the importance of product stewardship and the responsibility manufacturers have for communicating the health and safety information associated with the materials they produce. For dangerous goods professionals, the principle is familiar.

Accurate information needs to move with the product.

Classification, packaging, marking, labelling, documentation and transport decisions all rely on people having access to the correct information at the correct stage of the process.

Becoming a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser

As dangerous goods legislation developed, the role of the Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser (DGSA) became another natural addition to Andy’s responsibilities.

He qualified as a DGSA in March 2000 and explains that, within product stewardship, the qualification was particularly valuable because it helped bring together the different areas of transport legislation involved in moving hazardous products.

The role of the DGSA remains important today for businesses involved in the carriage of dangerous goods by road, and where applicable rail and inland waterways.

But dangerous goods does not exist within a single mode of transport.

Products frequently move through multimodal supply chains.

A shipment might begin its journey by road before travelling by sea or air. This means businesses need to understand not only the individual regulations but also what happens at the interface between different transport modes.

From Corporate Career to Dangerous Goods Consultancy

Andy retired from ExxonMobil Chemical in the spring of 2011 – although “retirement” did not last very long.

In fact, he started his own transport consultancy immediately afterwards.

Having considered whether to focus on chemical supply legislation or transport, Andy chose dangerous goods transport, an area where his combination of chemistry, product stewardship and regulatory experience could be put to good use.

But something else was happening within the dangerous goods industry at around the same time.

Professionals working in the field were recognising that they needed somewhere to go for support.

And that would eventually lead to BADGP.

Why Was BADGP Created?

A meeting was eventually arranged for people willing to do more than simply say that such an organisation would be useful. Around 80 or 90 people had reportedly expressed interest at an earlier meeting. When it came to actually meeting to establish the organisation, only 12 people turned up. Andy became chair. And they started with virtually nothing. No bank account. No money. No constitution. No membership. No established name. No logo.

Just a small group of dangerous goods professionals who believed that the industry needed a professional association. From there, the organisation began to take shape. A constitution was developed, meetings were organised, people contributed their expertise and BADGP gradually built its professional community. Its first AGM and seminar took place in the spring of 2011, with around 45 people attending – already a considerable increase from the original group of 12.

Dangerous Goods Professionals Should Not Work in Isolation

Perhaps the most important message from Andy’s conversation with Sam comes towards the end of the podcast.

Asked what advice he would give to dangerous goods professionals, Andy’s answer centres on becoming part of a professional community.

Dangerous goods is an enormous field.

Even experienced professionals will encounter questions they have not dealt with before.

One person might spend their career working predominantly with road tankers. Another may specialise in air cargo. Someone else may understand radioactive materials, lithium batteries, chemical classification, sea freight or packaging.

Nobody knows everything.

Andy describes the real value of BADGP as the community – having a network where professionals can ask questions freely and where someone is likely to have the relevant experience to help.

That matters in an industry where regulations evolve and where getting something wrong can have serious consequences.

Professional development is therefore not simply about obtaining a certificate. It is about continuing to learn.

Dangerous Goods Is Bigger Than the DGSA Role

Another important principle established when BADGP was formed was that it should not be restricted solely to DGSAs.

Dangerous goods professionals work across multiple transport modes and different qualifications apply depending on the activity involved.

Andy explains that BADGP deliberately takes a wider approach, supporting people interested in dangerous goods across the five major modes:

Road. Rail. Air. Sea. Inland waterways.

That becomes particularly important when dangerous goods move between modes – for example, a road journey connecting with an airport or seaport.

The professional questions do not stop simply because responsibility moves from one regulation to another.

There still needs to be knowledge and support at the interface between those systems.

The Value of Professional Community

BADGP has grown considerably since those first meetings.

Andy recalls starting with just 12 people committed to creating the organisation, while later events have attracted well over 100 dangerous goods professionals.

But numbers are not really the most important part of the story.

The significant achievement is creating somewhere dangerous goods professionals can:

• hear from specialist industry speakers;
• continue their professional development;
• see unfamiliar equipment and vehicles;
• learn about areas outside their normal specialism;
• discuss regulatory changes;
• ask technical questions;
• share practical experiences; and
• learn from people working across different transport modes.

As Andy points out, dangerous goods professionals come from many different areas.

That diversity is precisely what makes a professional network so valuable.

What Can We Learn From Andy Holton’s Career?

Andy’s career demonstrates how interconnected the dangerous goods industry really is.

Chemistry led to research. Research led to technical sales. Technical knowledge led into product stewardship.

Product stewardship brought together health and safety, legislation, Safety Data Sheets and supply chain responsibility.

Dangerous goods transport then became another essential part of that responsibility.

And eventually, professional experience highlighted another requirement altogether: the need for people working in dangerous goods to support and learn from each other.

The regulations may tell us what must be done.

But applying those regulations correctly requires knowledge, experience, judgement and continued learning.

That is why professional communities matter.

Listen to The Cargo Couch

In this episode of The Cargo Couch, Sam Stretton and Andy Holton explore the development of dangerous goods through the perspective of someone who has spent decades working with chemicals, product stewardship, health and safety and transport compliance.

From Andy’s childhood fascination with science to the formation and growth of the British Association of Dangerous Goods Professionals, the conversation offers a fascinating look at both the history and the people behind dangerous goods compliance.

Whether you work in dangerous goods, logistics, freight, chemicals, cargo, compliance, health and safety or supply chain, it is a reminder of one of the most important lessons in the industry:

Never stop learning – and don’t work in isolation.

Listen to the full episode of The Cargo Couch to hear the complete conversation to hear Andy’s story and discover more about the history and development of BADGP.

Stay safe, stay compliant.

For more information on customs compliance, contact Logicom Hub:

Phone: 0330 912 5041 or 01608 692177
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.logicomhub.com