Amazon won’t be storing hazardous products in its regular warehouses in the future. According to a new report, Amazon is actually building separate warehouses for hazardous goods. The first of such purpose-built warehouses is set to open this summer. Amazon decided to take this step following an incident involving bear repellent last year. The accident took place towards the end of 2018. It involved an exploding can of bear repellent which resulted in 24 warehouse workers being hospitalized.
After the accident, Amazon pulled thousands of bear repellent and pepper spray products from its 30 fulfillment centers in the country. It also stapled the packaging on these items in order to prevent leaks. The company confirmed to Wired that hazardous products like bear repellent will now be handled with greater care with only humans being able to handle them, not the robots.
Manufacturers will also be required to comply with higher safety standards for their packaging. The report does mention that Amazon had been working on fulfillment centers just for hazardous products prior to the December incident since there had been incidents other than the one involving the bear repellent.
These new warehouses will have designated storage areas for flammable products, aerosols, and oxidizers with special sprinkler systems. Staff will also be trained on how to cope with spills. The deliveries from these warehouses will be handled on the ground entirely without using planes.
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