Health and Safety Articles
Case Studies
ORANGE GAS CLOUD HEADS FOR JARROW
An international chemical firm has been fined £10,000 after an orange gas cloud leaked from its plant in Hebburn, South Tyneside. Read more . . .
FIREBALL PUTS TWO IN HOSPITAL
A company and its manager have been fined after two workers were engulfed in a fireball when they cut through a live 1,000-electrical cable at an industrial unit in Telford. Read more . . .
MAN DIES CHANGING A LIGHT BULB
Two construction companies must pay a total of £125,000 in fines and costs for failing to ensure that a cherry-picker, which was involved in a fatality, was safe for use. Read more . . .
SCIENCE EXPERIMENT PUTS TEACHER IN HOSPITAL
A science teacher and the son of a colleague both sustained burns when an experiment in the school science lab involving a flammable substance went wrong. Read more . . .
TOM AND JERRYESQUE ACCIDENT
An accident that would have been a comical parody of a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but for the terrible outcome, caused dreadful injuries to an operative working at height on a scaffold tower. Read more . . .
WORK-RELATED VIOLENCE INCLUDES ROBBERY
A failure to implement measures to protect staff from work-related violence has cost well-known bookmakers William Hill £10,000 in fines. Sefton Council brought health and safety charges against the betting firm after a female employee was attacked and suffered whiplash injuries during an armed robbery. Read more . . .
BANANA-BOAT TRAGEDY
A watersports club contracted a consultancy to help it set up safety management systems, despite the company having no experience of assisting water-ski parks in managing the risks from their activities, a report into the death of a child in a banana-boat incident has found. Read more . . .
BREWERS FARE BADLY
Two separate incidents at its Burton-on-Trent site have cost brewer Molson Coors more than £121,000 in total fines and costs. The company, which says it is the UK’s largest brewer, appeared before Cannock magistrates on 4th August to answer charges in relation to two incidents at its Station Street site in 2008. Read more . . .
SKIP YARD FATALITY
A judge has said a Salisbury company should be “appalled” that it allowed its employees to implement an unsafe method of work, which “undoubtedly” led to the death of a migrant worker. Read more . . .
WIMBLEDON ROW REACHES DUECE
A senior figure in the Wimbledon championships has hit back at the HSE for suggesting that safety was being used as a scapegoat for stopping people enjoying the tournament. Read more . . .
HORRIFIC ACCIDENT AT SUSSEX COLLEGE
A man with learning difficulties died and five others with disabilities suffered horrific internal injuries after a carer confused dishwasher fluid with orange squash and gave it to a group to drink on a council-organised trip. Read more . . .
AN EARLY TRIUMPH AT THE OLYMPIC STADIUM
A year before they even take place, Great Britain has triumphed at the Olympic Stadium. The health and safety record of the London 2012 Olympics construction project has been outstanding but the scale of the achievement may never be seen again, according to a senior HSE inspector. Read more . . .
CAUGHT ON THE HOP PRESS
He and another colleague were operating a hop press, which is used to make bales of hops for the brewing industry. During the process, the machine’s plunger, which compresses the hops, shot upwards and trapped the man’s right arm against the side of the press. Read more . . .
HEALTH AND SECRECY
THE MAJORITY of UK workers would rather keep a health concern or personal issue to themselves than tell their boss or colleagues, according to new research by Aviva UK Health.
The study questioned 1004 employees and found that only 4 per cent would approach their boss with a health concern and a further 5 percent said they might confide in a colleague. By contrast nearly two thirds of those questioned said they would talk about the issue with their partner. Read more . . .
INJURIES FROM FALLING
A property company and a construction contract worker have been fined a total of £13,000 after a labourer fell through a roof. When the labourer stepped on to the roof, which was made of asbestos-cement sheeting, it gave way and he fell 6.5 metres to the concrete floor below. He was taken to hospital and received treatment for two fractured vertebrae and serious injuries to his hands. Read more . . .
FIRE SAFETY
A JUDGE HAS CASTIGATED consumer-owned business giant, the Co-operative Group, for showing a lamentable approach to fire safety. The organisation was served a £210,000 fine and ordered to pay costs of more than £28,000 after it pleaded guilty on 26 April to six breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Read more . . .
Facts
INCREASE IN WORK DEATHS
The HSE has published its latest annual report on its own health and safety performance for the year 2010/11. The report finds that incidents resulting in injury and cases of work related ill health have remained fairly static in comparison with previous report years but there has been an increase in the number of near-miss reports. Read more . . .
HEALTH AND SAFETY REPORT ON HSE
New official statistics published today show that there was an increase in the number of people killed at work last year. The HSE has released provisional data for the year April 2010 to March 2011, which shows the number of workers killed was 171, an increase on the previous year, when 147 died (the lowest number on record). Read more . . .
DEATH TOLL ON THE RISE IN CONSTRUCTION
HSE monitoring of the reports coming into it between April 2010 and March 2011 indicated a rise of around 15 per cent on last year’s low of 42 deaths. Read more . . .
SURPRISE FIGURES ON ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION
Managers and professionals have a higher weekly alcohol intake than routine and manual workers, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Annual Lifestyle Survey, which looked at people’s habits in 2009, found that the average weekly alcohol consumption was 13.5 units for adults in households classified as managerial and professional and 10.7 units for adults in routine and manual households. The survey found that in managerial and professional households, 41% of men exceeded four units and 35% of women exceeded three units on at least one day in the week before interview, compared to 34% of men and 23% of women in routine and manual households. Read more . . .
VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE
The number of violent incidents at work last year totalled 677,000, according to the 2009/10 British Crime Survey – a rise of 8 per cent on the previous year’s sum. But despite the increase, fewer workers experienced an incident of violence – 318,000 compared with 327,000 in 2008/09. The figures are presented in an HSE analysis of work-related violence in England and Wales, based on findings from the 2009/10 British Crime Survey (BCS). Read more . . .
Legislation and Guidance
MANAGING FIRE RISK ON CONSTRUCTION SITES
The UK Timber Frame Association (UKTFA) has launched guidance on building timber-frame structures safely on sites in high-risk and densely populated areas. Read more . . .
H&S RULES RELAXED FOR APPRENTICESHIPS
From the start of next year, training providers and employers offering apprenticeships will no longer have to comply with any requirements that go ‘above and beyond’ health and safety legislation. Read more . . .
H & S RULES NOT TO BLAME
Teachers in England are using health and safety as a “convenient excuse” for not organising practical experiments and school trips, a group of MPs has found. Read more . . .
UNIONS PLEDGE TO FIGHT HSE CUTS
Delegates at the TUC Congress have unanimously supported a motion condemning the cuts to the HSE’s budget and warning to fight any “watering-down of health and safety” imposed through the Government’s reform agenda. Read more . . .
REPORT ON VOLUNTARY H&S REGULATION SCHEME HIGHLIGHTS SERIOUS PROBLEMS
A health and safety self-regulation model widely used in the United States, and which, some argue, is slowly being adopted in the UK, has been heavily criticised by a leading American news organisation. Read more . . .
NO WIN NO FEE REFORMS
The UK Government plans to reform no win, no fee legislation and also introduce automatic referral to mediation. Read more . . .
Litigation
PARK AND SLIDE!
A landowner has been jailed for nine months for failing to comply with enforcement notices, which required him to put edge protection around a hillside car park to stop them from potentially sliding down a steep bank. Read more . . .
CORPORATE MANSLAUGHTER
The long-awaited trial for corporate manslaughter of Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings has finally got underway at Winchester Crown Court in front of Justice Field. The charges of gross negligence manslaughter against its managing director, Peter Eaton, were dropped last year due to his ill health. Sally Roff, Partner and Head of the Safety, Health and Environment Group at law firm Beachcroft LLP, commented: Read more . . .
REPEATED FALLS
The HSE has prosecuted two companies after three workers fell through skylights on three separate occasions at an industrial unit in Warrington. The initial incident took place on 20 March 2007 at Bizspace Investment Ltd’s facility at the Craven Court industrial estate at Winwick Quay. A caretaker at the site was cleaning guttering on the roof when he fell through a fragile skylight, and suffered multiple broken ribs. Following the incident, one of his colleagues, having been sent to take photos of the scene, fell through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped without injury. Read more . . .
WORKING AT HEIGHT CASE
A factory worker suffered multiple broken bones after being struck by an overhead crane while working on a scissor lift. Lanark Sheriff Court heard that the incident took place on 3 April 2008 at steel-fabrication firm BHC Ltd’s factory in Carnwarth, South Lanarkshire. Alexander Struthers, 36, was using the scissor lift to drill holes in steel roof rafters in the factory’s workshop. The work was being carried out as part of an expansion project for the workshop, where the company spray-paints metal beams. Read more . . .
Raising Awareness
SKIN CANCER AWARENESS
Constructing Better Health (CBH) has launched a year-long Skin Cancer Awareness Campaign. In partnership with Skcin (The Karen Clifford Skin Cancer Charity) and Polypipe, CBH is aiming to raise funds and awareness about the UK’s fastest-growing cancer. Read more . . .