Cap. 33 Art. 4Precautions for the establishment of gunpowder factories or similar factories.

The following precautions shall be required to be observed to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Police in every case in which a gunpowder factory or other similar factory is established:

(a) that the factory shall be at a distance of not less than one hundred and eighty-three metres from -

(i) any inhabited place;

(ii) any street which is used regularly for the passage of motor vehicles not being a rural street or a street or path used principally to provide access to fields or a street or path used principally to provide access to a gunpowder factory; or

(iii) any other street within one hundred and eighty-three metres of which it would not be advisable, in the opinion of the Commissioner of Police after consultation with the Planning Authority and the Authority for Transport in Malta, to establish such a factory: The distance of one hundred and eighty three metres referred to in this paragraph shall always be measured from the centre of the magazine;

(b) that the factory shall be surrounded by a wall or other solid fence of a height of not less than four metres and provided with an efficient lightning conductor: Provided that no such wall or any other solid fence shall be required for fireworks factories;

(c) that there shall be a magazine for the storage of gunpowder or other explosives at a sufficient distance from the factory buildings;

(d) that separate buildings at a convenient distance from each other shall be used for each process of manufacture;

(e) that no work shall be done at night or by artificial light or during a thunderstorm or when the state of the weather is such as to give reason to believe that a thunderstorm is imminent;

(f) that any gunpowder or other explosives which are manufactured shall be removed to the magazine within twenty-four hours: Provided that, independently of the conditions above-mentioned, the Commissioner of Police may, whether of his own accord as well as on the recommendations specifically made by the Inspectorate Committee, impose different and onerous conditions, among which that the explosives be stored in a separate and distinct place from the one wherein they are prepared, as well as that the factory schedules its tasks according to the manner in which the Commissioner of Police may prescribe, as to those amounts, times and necessary methods, and that by the 15th December of each year, a detailed plan of action be submitted for the following year.