Health & Safety News - Week ending 23rd July 2010
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| Castle Bromwich firm fined after worker injured by robot. |
| Dura Automotive Body and Glass Systems UK fined £30,000 and costs of £20,000 under HASAWA 1974 s2 and MHSWR 1999. Michael Brewer was struck while trying to repair a fully-automated industrial robot. As part of the repair Mr Brewer wanted to see the operating cycle of the machine. However, a solid guard fully enclosed the robot so he couldn't see through it. Mr Brewer decided to view the robot from inside the guarded area while it was operating. While in this dangerous zone, the robot struck him in the throat, causing damage to his voice box and nerves on one side of his body. HSE found the company had a system of work for accessing the machine that required the machine to be put in manual before entering, rather than on the full automatic cycle. However, this was not adequately supervised and failed to account for a need to view the operating cycle for the machine from outside. Viewing the operation cycle from inside the guarded area had become common practice. The risk assessment the company had produced was not sufficient as it had failed to address the risks from maintenance operators or the risk posed by the industrial robots operating within the guarded area. Since the incident the company has installed large viewing panels in the guarding of the machine so it can be viewed from the outside, as well as improving the access arrangements and the supervision of its systems. Mr Brewer, meanwhile, will not return to work because of his injuries. (More...) |
HSE (National) Press Release WM108/09 19/7/10 |
| Bin advice. |
| HSE has published new guidance for the waste industry on preventing serious injuries to people taking shelter in commercial waste bins or communal domestic bins. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:3 Internet: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/waste25.pdf |
| A matter of time. |
| An argument that the amount of time employers have to spend on the bureaucracy surrounding health and safety legislation in the workplace is undermining the importance of the very things it seeks to convey. (Andrew Townsend) |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:5 |
| On the ropes. |
| The Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) has published a new International Code of Practice on using industrial rope access techniques safely. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:8 Internet: www.irata.org/publications.htm |
| Vehicle repair advice. |
| HSE has published two new leaflets for those who work in the motor vehicle repair trade. The leaflets deal with two routine tasks: working under vehicles and the inflation of tyres. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:9 Internet: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg434.pdf and www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg433.pdf |
| Battling the bugs. |
| The look at the current progress in reducing the levels of "superbug" infections. (Nick Cook) |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:10-11 |
| TV chef's restaurant fined for pollution. |
| The Yew Tree (Highclere) Ltd fined £30,000 and costs of £7,785 under WRA 1991, also compensation to two residents of £200 each and a victim surcharge of £15. Director Andrew Parton fined £3,100 and costs of £865 under WRA 1991, also a victim surcharge of £15. The Berkshire restaurant, co-owned by TV chef Marco Pierre White, was prosecuted for polluting a nearby stream with sewage. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:20 |
| New union H&S guides. |
| Public sector trade union Unison has updated a selection of its H&S guides. The revised advice covers the topics of bullying at work, first aid, RSI, sickness absence agreements and temperature at work. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:20 Internet: www.unison.org.uk/safety |
| One in four work without a break. |
| According to a survey conducted by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, 25 per cent of people in the UK regularly work all day without taking a break. The poll of nearly 3000 people found that more than one third of staff regularly work through their lunch break and 23 per cent take no lunch break at all. |
RoSPA Safety Express July/August 2010:20 |
| Working in the public interest to make a difference. |
| As the national regulator for H&S in the workplace, HSE acts in the public interest to protect workers from unnecessary dangers. |
HSE Health and Safety Newsletter (25) June-July 2010:6-7 Internet: www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/inthepublicinterest |
| Getting maximum protection from RPE. |
| Why it is essential that workers who wear respiratory protective equipment ensure that they always use it properly. (Bob Rajan) |
HSE Health and Safety Newsletter (25) June-July 2010:8-9 |
| North Sea rig inspections to be increased. |
| The Government is to double the number of inspections of off-shore drilling rigs and increase monitoring of offshore compliance following the fatal explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in which 11 people were killed. |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:3 |
| Ticked off. |
| The majority of local authorities in Wales are failing to protect their staff from what the CIEH calls "the growing threat" of Lyme disease. Of the 22 LAs questioned, only 2 had given their staff advice or conducted a risk assessment for the outdoor workers most at risk of contracting the disease, which is spread by infected ticks. |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:4 www.hpa.org.uk/topics/infectiousdiseases/infectionsaz/lymedisease |
| New minister. |
| Chris Grayling MP is the new minister responsible for health and safety. The former shadow Home Secretary is now Minister for Employment at the Dept of Works and Pensions. |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:4 |
| Whistleblowing views. |
| Less than a quarter of employees questioned about their views on H&S in the workplace said they would report their employer to the HSE if they thought they were breaking H&S law. However, 70 per cent of the workers questioned said they would inform their line manager or supervisor if there was a problem. |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:4 |
| Out of site. |
| Over the last ten years or so, working from home for the odd day or two each week or month has become a more widely available option for many employees, particularly those in office based jobs. However, in addition to these workers, around one million people are employed in "traditional" homeworking jobs. (Nick Cook) |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:11-14 |
| Safety performance. |
| Health and safety may seem an unlikely subject for an artist to focus on but earlier this year, Glasgow-based artist and performer, David Sherry, did just that as the subject of his arts residency with a north-east Scotland community arts organisation. (Neil Jones) |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:21-24 |
| Silent witness. |
| Crime scene investigators face the unexpected daily. A visit to the forensic science training centre to find out how they prepare. (Paul Heslop) |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:27-30 |
| Learning from accidents. |
| Learning from accidents has been a key policy theme for RoSPA for well over a decade. However, in practice most workplace accidents are not fully investigated by employers. Why so many opportunities for learning are being missed. (Roger Bibbings) |
RoSPA Occup Safety & Health Journal July 2010:35-36 |
| Pirelli fined after Carlisle worker injured by forklift truck. |
| Pirelli Tyres Ltd fined £9,000 and costs of £4,282 under HASAWA 1974 s3. Alan Miller, a 62 year old contractor, was walking through an area within the curing department when he was struck from behind by a pallet being carried on an FLT. He suffered a broken leg and has been unable to return to his normal duties. Pirelli failed to properly manage the risks to pedestrians in the area, including failing to inform contractors of the precautions required to ensure their safety. The FLT driver's vision was frequently obscured because their loads had to be lowered to avoid overhead obstructions. A previous risk assessment by Pirelli had identified that the area should be a pedestrian-free zone. There had been several previous incidents in the same area of the factory involving pedestrians and FLTs. |
HSE (National) Press Release HSE/NW/33Pirelli 16/7/10 |
| Peterlee firm fined after worker's hand severed. |
| Conder Solutions Limited fined £15,000 and costs of £2,759 under PUWER 1998. A 55 year old employee was polishing a rotating metal shaft on a metal working lathe with a strip of emery cloth. Although he was wearing gloves and holding the cloth with both hands, his right hand came into contact with the lathe's rotating shaft and cutting tool, resulting in his hand being ripped off. Surgeons were able to re-attach the hand but despite undergoing 5 operations, the worker still has no feeling in the hand and is unable to use it and has been unable to return to work. |
HSE (National) Press Release NE/197/10 19/7/10 |
| Agriculture champion's stark message to Welsh farmers. |
| HSE used the Royal Welsh show as an opportunity to rally Welsh farmers into looking out for themselves and each other. New figures from the HSE show agriculture to be the most dangerous industry in Britain, with proportionately more work-related deaths than any other sector. 38 workers were killed while carrying out farm work in 2009/10, making a return to average levels of previous years and in contrast to 25 fatalities the previous year, a record low. |
HSE (National) Press Release 820W09AP 19/7/10 |
| Telford firm fined after worker loses finger. |
| 12R Packaging Solutions fined £10,000 and costs of £5,677 under HASAWA 1974 s2. A female employee had her hand trapped in an incident while making foil food cartons. She was helping another worker remove aluminium foil from a 130-tonne power press, which had become jammed. Her colleague had opened the protective guards which stops the machine automatically, but not switched off the pneumatic energy. As the pneumatic system stores some energy within it, even when the power is turned off, it meant part of the machine snapped upwards and injured the female worker's hand. When part of the machine snapped upwards it amputated the worker's index finger, middle finger and tip of her ring finger on her right hand. A separate manual process would have been needed to ensure the pneumatic energy had been dissipated before trying to get the blockage out of the machine. |
HSE (National) Press Release WM122/10 19/7/10 |
| Frozen food specialist fined after worker loses finger. |
| Pinguin Food UK Ltd fined £10,000 and costs of £3,500 under HASAWA 1974 s2. A man's finger was amputated when his hand was crushed while trying to straighten some boxes on an automatic palletising machine. Although the box loading machine which the man was working on had a perspex guard attached, the employee routinely entered the enclosure while the machinery was running. While behind the guard, his fingers were caught between a pallet and the conveyor, resulting in his middle finger being amputated from the tip to the first knuckle. He was subsequently off work for six months. HSE found a number of employees had been given interlock parts which effectively overrode the safety systems in place and allowed access to the enclosure. |
HSE (National) Press Release HSE/EM46/10 19/7/10 |
| Firm fined after scaffold collapse. |
| William Bedford t/a B & J Scaffolding fined £4,000 and costs of £2,500 under HASAWA 1974 s3. One evening 85 metres of scaffold overturned in the wind and collapsed into a public street. The scaffold was not adequately secured to the houses and was missing elements used to stabilise the structure. |
HSE (National) Press Release NE/200/10 21/7/10 |
| Construction company put workers at risk of falls. |
| Gee Construction Ltd fined £10,000 and costs of £4,514.25 under WHR 2005. The major construction company failed to properly protect its workers from falls at height on a site. The inspector found a number of shortcomings including unguarded lift shafts on the first and second floor, and inadequate edge protection to prevent workers from falls - one of the main causes of deaths in the construction industry. The company had also previously received two PNs for work at height issues. |
HSE (National) Press Release 821W10 22/7/10 |
| Work stopped at a fifth of West Midland construction sites. |
| Work was stopped on almost one in five of West Midlands construction sites visited as part of a recent intensive safety initiative. HSE inspectors were aimed at stopping dangerous practices and raising awareness of construction site risks to help prevent death and injury. During the month-long campaign, 93 sites were visited involving 95 contractors, 17 prohibition notices were issued on 17 sites. They were issued for such activities as no edge protection installed for major roof works, incomplete scaffolds in use, missing guard rails and large gaps in scaffold platforms. Construction is one of Britain's most dangerous industries. During 2008/09, although no people died, 509 people were injured while working in construction in the West Midlands. Newly released figures for 2009/10 show 41 construction workers were killed at work across Britain. |
HSE (West Midlands) Press Release 19/7/10 |
| Magna Specialist Confectioners Ltd |
| Fined £75,000 under HASAWA 1974 s11. Access through interlocked Perspex doors possible by Process Technicians. IP could elect a speed to leave production line running at whilst door opened to Frozen Cone section of Aasted 2 production line despite written procedure to the contrary. Incorrect machinery guarding standard, defeatable interlock device. IP opened interlocked doors to clean up spill of refrigerant liquid with line running at full speed, head went into machine when machine indexed and was closing up to about 5cm trap with one tonne force. Thrown out of machine. Injuries: 2 weeks in coma, blind in right eye, 50% sight in left eye, deaf in right ear, cannot walk much further than 100m, walks with white stick, no sense of taste or smell. Unlikely to work again. Latterly, computer control amended to allow access through interlocked doors only when conveyor system stopped. |
HSE Prosecution 4127191 10/5/10 |
| Our Julia Limited |
| Fined £7,000 under WHR 2005. IP was boarding fishing vessel and access ladder to main deck was placed in unsuitable position. IP and ladder slipped because no stop in place. |
HSE Prosecution 4201659 10/5/10 |
| Lincoln College |
| Fined £1,500 under MHSWR 1999. The college failed to make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate for the organisation, control and monitoring of the work of contract window cleaners on the site. |
HSE Prosecution 4158603 11/5/10 |
| J F Feltham |
| Conditional Discharge under GSIUR 1998. Unsafe gas fitting work at two addresses whilst not a member of a class of persons approved by the HSE. |
HSE Prosecution 4174489 12/5/10 |
| Jack Smith Builders Ltd |
| Fined £3,000 under HASAWA 1974 s3. A worker was seriously injured when part of an office block collapsed and the rubble fell on him. A concrete block pillar, used to support the first and second floors, had been resting on the ground floor instead of going down into the foundations. The company failed to ensure the safety of workers during the construction. Jack Smith Builders Ltd were the principal contractors. |
HSE Prosecution 4192187 12/5/10 |
| The Wallace Partnership |
| Fined £4,000 under HASAWA 1974 s3. A worker was seriously injured when part of an office block collapsed and the rubble fell on him. A concrete block pillar, used to support the first and second floors, had been resting on the ground floor instead of going down into the foundations. The company failed to ensure the safety of workers during the construction. |
HSE Prosecution 4192193 12/5/10 |
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