Health & Safety

Health & safety update

Welcome to May’s Health and Safety Update. In this month’s issue, a Derbyshire company is fined a whopping £50,000 after a worker suffers serious burns, the HSE puts out a warning to ‘lift with care’ and a property company learns some hard lessons after failing to comply with Construction Regulations.

Worker suffers serious burns and company fined £50,000

A worker at a Milling & Turning company in Derbyshire suffered serious burns after his clothes caught alight in a dust explosion. Mr Gothard was using a vacuum hose to charge aluminium powder into a blender. It was found that the hose he was using didn’t have metallic earthing on it to prevent static building up, hence causing a static spark to ignite the aluminium powder.

A number of workers had reported suffering electric shocks from the hose before this incident, but management had failed to address their concerns. The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £13,200 in costs.

Failure to comply with Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

A worker for a property company suffered serious injuries after falling over six metres through an asbestos cement roof onto a cement floor beneath.

The organisation in question had hired a smaller organisation owned by Mr Michael to carry out the work at an industrial unit in London, however, they had failed to assess the competency of the contractor before the work was carried out (as laid out in the Construction Regulations 2007).

The property company was fined £13,000, and Mr Michael was fined £10,430 for his part in the accident.

Inadequate lifting equipment

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) outlines:

Employers or self-employed people providing lifting equipment for use at work, or those who have control of the use of lifting equipment, must make sure the lifting equipment is safe. The main requirements for 'duty holders' are in the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) and the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER).

A well renowned steel company is already learning this hard lesson, after a lorry driver was fatally crushed at its site in Staffordshire. In this tragic case, an overhead crane was being used to lift 3 tonne plates from one part of a trailer to another, but the lorry driver in question was standing on the trailer when a plate fell on top of him.

Since the incident, the company has provided a platform so that workers do not have to stand on the trailer when loads are being lifted.

Any lifting operation should be the subject of a risk assessment.

Any lifting task should be:

• Carried out by people properly trained in their area of expertise.
• Controlled so loads are not lifted above anyone.
• Properly supervised by a lift supervisor.
• Using recognised communication methods such as hand signals or radio communications.
• Cordoned off and carried out with only essential personnel in the lift area.
• Carried out only using equipment which has been properly tested and inspected.

Keep on track with your Health and Safety and you’ll not only be providing a safe and healthy working environment for your employees, but you’ll also be significantly reducing your risk of facing costly penalties and fines, which can be very easily avoided.