COMPANIES FINED AFTER WORKER'S LEG CRUSHED
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
Site owners and managers are today warned of the danger of moving vehicles after two companies were fined last week following a prosecution brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Aggregate Industries UK Limited (Bardon Contracting division) and Tripod Crest Planing Limited were each fined £25,000 after pleading guilty to breaches of Sections 2(1) and 3(1) respectively of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 at the Central Criminal Court in London on Friday 8 September.
HSE Inspector Alec Ferguson said, “Most of the men on site had worked together before. However, despite both Bardon and Tripod having recognised the risk of injury from reversing vehicles, and taking account of this in their method statements, the visiting lorry driver received no site induction about safe reversing from either company on site.”
The incident occurred on South Lambeth Road, London SW8 on the night of 14 January 2003. Bardon Contracting employee Stephen Bood, aged 53, was marking a driveline on the road surface for the Tripod Planing machine to follow. With his back turned he did not see a lorry from Tripod’s haulage subcontractor reversing towards him. The lorry ran over the length of Mr Bood’s leg, crushing them severely. Mr. Bood is still recovering from his injuries.
MAINTENANCE WORKERS WARNED – DON’T TAKE THE GAMBLE WITH ASBESTOS
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
"Don’t take a gamble with your life” is the message to maintenance workers from Steve Coldrick, Director of the Health and Safety Executive’s Disease Reduction Programme.
These workers, including plumbers, carpenters and builders, account for more than one quarter of the 3,500 asbestos-related cancer deaths each year. To raise their awareness of the dangers of working with asbestos, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today launched its “Don’t take the gamble” campaign.
More than half a million non-domestic premises and houses still contain some form of the material, posing a real threat to unwary maintenance workers. These workers are at risk because they may unknowingly drill or cut into material that could contain asbestos and breathe in the deadly fibres.
At the launch of the campaign at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s annual conference, Steve Coldrick said:
“Exposure to asbestos can cause cancer and an early death. There are around 1.8 million maintenance workers in Great Britain, many of whom don’t realise that asbestos could be present and therefore a threat. While current deaths are due to asbestos exposure that happened many years ago, we need to make today’s workers aware that they are at risk.. This campaign focuses on how important it is for those working with asbestos not to gamble with their lives.”
Colin Stainer, South West Area Co-ordinator of the Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, said: “The IPHE is very happy to support HSE’s ‘Don’t take the gamble’ campaign. It is essential that maintenance workers are aware that asbestos is still present in many buildings and that they know what precautions to take to help prevent the appalling deaths caused by asbestos-related disease.”
Some key points for maintenance workers are:
Ask if asbestos is present before starting work
Check that the work does not require a licence
Work safely with asbestos: wear a suitable mask, vacuum up any dust with a special Class H vacuum cleaner and do not drill or cut into asbestos with power tools
“Don’t take the gamble” also reminds dutyholders of their obligations under asbestos law. Dutyholders are those responsible for the maintenance and repair of non-domestic buildings, either through a contract or tenancy agreement, or because they own the building. Under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations, dutyholders have to manage the risk from asbestos in their buildings.
Some key points for dutyholders are:
Manage the risk from any asbestos in the building
Make and keep a record of its location and condition
Tell people who may work on the building that asbestos is present, especially maintenance workers.
HSE has created a ‘one-stop shop’ asbestos website, giving a central source of comprehensive advice, at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos.
BUPA CARE HOMES FINED £90,000 AFTER THE TRAGIC
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
BUPA Care Homes Ltd has been fined £90,000 and ordered to pay £19,247 costs to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in a prosecution by the HSE, following the death of 95-year-old woman, Mrs Charlotte Wood from Mottingham.
Mrs Wood became a resident at the Abbotsleigh Mews Residential and Nursing Home in Sidcup run by BUPA Care Homes Ltd in 2001. She was unable to walk or move independently. On 28 November 2003, Mrs Wood slipped from a Sarita hoist, which was being used to get her out of a bath, and fractured her shoulder. While waiting for surgery on her shoulder, Mrs Wood contracted pneumonia and subsequently died on 2 December 2003.
Following the sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court today, HSE Inspector Hazel McCallum said,
“All too often we hear of cases where vulnerable, elderly people are not afforded the standard of care they deserve because the systems in place are not properly followed. The tragedy is that Mrs Wood’s death was entirely avoidable.”
The care assistant who was attending Mrs Wood had been employed by BUPA for about six weeks but had not received training and had not used this type of hoist before. Risk assessments and procedures for manual handling and safe bathing were not brought to the attention of care assistants and the supervision of staff carrying out lifting operations was inadequate.
Mrs Wood’s family say she had other minor falls from hoists while at Abbottsleigh Mews. Her son, Geoff Wood said,
“My Mother was a much loved and central part of our family and her loss was a great blow to us all. Although she was frail she was in good health and we had fully expected her to get a telegram from the Queen.”
BUPA were found guilty at the hearing at Southwark Crown Court of an offence as provided by Section 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
BUPA Care Homes Ltd pleaded guilty in November 2004 to two other charges under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. In this case a 90-year-old woman died after a brain haemorrhage resulting from a fall from a sling when she was being hoisted out of a bath. BUPA was fined £2,500 for each offence and the HSE awarded full costs.
HSE TO TAKE OVER ELECTRICITY SUPPLY SAFETY REGULATION
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is to become the sole regulator for all safety issues associated with electricity transmission and distribution, following transfer of part of the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) Engineering Inspectorate.
The move will implement a recommendation made in last year’s Hampton report on regulation (see Notes to editors). Following the transfer, scheduled to take effect in October, HSE will become the thematic regulator dealing with both employee and public safety within this sector. Industry stakeholders have already been consulted and agree that a single regulator for safety matters would be advantageous.
Announcing the move, Sandra Caldwell, HSE’s Director of Field Operations, said: “The transfer simplifies matters for industry – for example, there will now be only one safety regulator to report incidents or injuries to - whilst maintaining current regulatory standards and consistency. HSE is committed to the principles of better regulation and this transfer demonstrates that work is in progress to implement the Hampton report’s recommendations.”
‘INDUSTRY MUST DO MORE TO MEET OFFSHORE SAFETY TARGETS’, SAYS HSE
Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published safety statistics for the offshore industry during 2005/06. The figures show that two workers were killed and 50 suffered major injuries. This compares to no fatalities and 48 major injuries in 2004/05. The offshore statistics bulletin is available at: www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/statistics/stat0506.htm
The combined fatal and major injury rate decreased by 11 per cent to 225.4 per 100,000 workers compared with 253.4 in 2004/05. This improvement is explained by the 21 per cent rise in the number of people working offshore.
Commenting on the statistics, Ian Whewell, Head of HSE’s Offshore Division said: “The figures show continued improvements in the incident rates for the more serious incidents and I welcome this. However, whilst rates are important, the cold fact is that two men died last year and a further 50 people were seriously injured. The industry must now push on with its programmes of improvement if it is to deliver its agreed objectives of being the safest sector in the world by 2010 and to bring about more pronounced incident rate reductions.
"The offshore industry faces considerable challenges as the North Sea infrastructure ages. Many offshore installations have exceeded their expected working lives and requirements for maintenance, repair and replacement are now increasing rapidly. HSE believes that the goals of significantly improving installation integrity and securing a long safe future for the UK Continental Shelf are inseparable and that investment in infrastructure is crucial to securing a safe and sustainable offshore environment."
Ian Whewell added: "Senior management commitment across the industry is high and the partnership infrastructure is in place and working to bring improvements, but there is still more to be done. On our part, we will continue to focus on the fundamental safety issues for the offshore industry, which are plant integrity, safe systems of work, supervision and risk assessment. In particular, we have been able to feed back good practice and lessons learned to industry, and I am pleased to see that the statistics show that dangerous occurrences, many of which are precursors to major incidents, have decreased."
Alan Brown of ExxonMobil, Co-Chair of Step Change in Safety, said: “ Although we see improvements in offshore safety, the latest statistics show that we still have much to do if we are to achieve our Step Change vision of making the UK the safest oil and gas region in the world by 2010. We want to ensure that everyone returns home safely, and nobody gets hurt.
"There is currently a high level of energy across industry from drill floor to boardroom focussed on achieving our Step Change vision. Over the next two months, more that 70 companies will be involved in leadership visits to our UK onshore and offshore installations to discuss safety with all members of our workforce, and specifically, to capture improvement ideas and address safety concerns. Working together we are convinced we can make a step change improvement and achieve our 2010 vision."
Doug Halkett of Transocean, the other Co-Chair of Step Change in Safety added: "We are creating a more dynamic safety culture where the sharing of information and best practice is becoming the standard way we do business. Safety is our number one priority; we are challenging how we have worked in the past and encouraging greater debate about what we need to change to improve our safety performance in the future. Step Change believes that our industry can achieve the 2010 vision if everyone is involved and committed to world class safety across the UK sector."
HEALTH AND SAFETY MINISTER LORD HUNT GOES CAVING
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
Lord Hunt, Minister for Health and Safety, visited Trewern Adventure Activity Centre near Hay-on-Wye and went caving with the centre’s leader, Juliet Parker-Smith on Wednesday, 23 August 2006.
After the visit Lord Hunt said:
“I have taken a close personal interest in the adventure activity sector in trying to understand their concerns about the Work at Height Regulations. Out of that has come this terrific opportunity to see caving at first hand. I am very grateful to Juliet and her team for this opportunity and very much enjoyed getting a better understanding of how risks are managed in such a challenging environment.
Lord Hunt continued:
“On 22nd August the Health and Safety Commission launched its principles of risk assessment - setting out clearly and simply what risk management is and is not about. I’m sure they will be of great help to people organising and taking part in outdoor activities like caving or climbing. We all know that adventure comes with risks – you can’t have endeavour without it. And we equally know that we can’t take away all the risks that arise from activities like climbing or caving – but we can manage them. These activities have strong educational value and, provided they are well planned and properly and safely managed, we should be encouraging our children to take part and enjoy the experience they offer.'
Juliet Parker-Smith added:
“I am delighted that Lord Hunt could take the time to see for himself at first hand the way professional adventure activity providers manage risks.”
QUARTERLY STATEMENT OF NUCLEAR INCIDENTS AT NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
A statement on incidents at nuclear installations in Britain that meet Ministerial reporting criteria is reported to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Scotland and is published every quarter by the Health & Safety Executive.
For the period 1 April 2006 to 30 June 2006 there were no incidents at any of the nuclear licensed installations that met the reporting criteria.
EURO COMMISSION CONSULTS ON PROPOSED UN GLOBALLY HARMONISED SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION AND LABELLING OF CHEMICALS
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
On 21 August the European Commission launched a two-month Internet Consultation on a proposed Regulation on the Classification and Labelling of chemicals based on the United Nations Globally Harmonised System (GHS).
Robin Foster, HSE’s International Chemicals Unit said, “We encourage all UK stakeholders to respond directly to the European Commission’s consultation, and to send a copy of any response to us.”
HSE leads on the negotiation of GHS for the UK. The UK Government will also formally respond to the European Commission’s consultation. HSE is keen to hear from those with an interest on how this proposal will affect the UK. This will then help shape the UK negotiating strategy.
HSE has set up a website including a discussion forum, calendar of events and how stakeholders can get involved, and is encouraging people to sign up. consultations.hse.gov.uk/inovem/consult.ti/ghschemicals
Across the world there are different laws that control how the hazardous properties of chemicals are described, and how this information is passed on to users. This can be confusing because one chemical can have different descriptions in different countries. For example, a chemical can be labelled as flammable in one country, but not in another, creating problems for trade and increasing costs in having to comply with more than one system.
The United Nations brought experts from different countries together to create the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).
The aim is to have, worldwide, the same:
Criteria for classifying chemicals according to their health, environmental and physical hazards, and,
Hazard communication requirements for labelling and safety data sheets
The European Commission has proposed a draft Regulation that will bring the current EU system into line with the UN GHS.
Comments to HSE on how the proposed Regulation will impact on the UK should be sent to Chloë Barnett, Health and Safety Executive, 9SW Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, London SE1 9HS (or ghschemicals-manager@consultations.hse.gov.uk) to arrive no later than 29 September 2006 (comment can be accepted after this date, but will not be fed into the UK formal response to the European Commission’s consultation).
“GET A LIFE”, SAYS HSC
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) is urging people to focus on real risks – those that cause real harm and suffering – and stop concentrating effort on trivial risks and petty health and safety. To help take this forward the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today launched a set of key principles: practical actions that we believe sensible risk management should, and should not, be about. The principles can be found at Risk website.
Launching the principles at a children’s sailing centre in north London, Bill Callaghan, Chair of the HSC, said: “I’m sick and tired of hearing that ‘health and safety’ is stopping people doing worthwhile and enjoyable things when at the same time others are suffering real harm and even death as a result of mismanagement at work.
“Some of the ‘health and safety’ stories are just myths. There are also some instances where health and safety is used as an excuse to justify unpopular decisions such as closing facilities. But behind many of the stories, there is at least a grain of truth – someone really has made a stupid decision. We’re determined to tackle all three. My message is that if you’re using health and safety to stop everyday activities – get a life and let others get on with theirs.”
Lending support to the principles, author and adventurer Ben Fogle said: “Children encounter risk everyday and its important that, through activities like those being carried out today, they learn how to enjoy themselves but also stay safe.
“I probably take more risks than most – and I wouldn’t want my life to be any other way. No one wants a world where children, in fact anyone, is wrapped in cotton wool, prevented from taking any risks and scared of endeavour. “That’s why I’m supporting HSE’s launch and am happy to endorse these principles.”
Sensible risk management IS about:
Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected;
Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences;
Enabling innovation and learning, not stifling them;
Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action; and
Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility.
Sensible risk management IS NOT about:
Creating a totally risk free society;
Generating useless paperwork mountains;
Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks;
Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed; and
Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering.
CONSTRUCTION DEATHS DOWN TO A RECORD LOW IN 2005/06
Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 by Ahmed Khan
Statistics released today by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show the total number of fatal injuries to workers in construction during 2005/06 was 59 (provisional), a fall from the final figure of 69 in 2004/05. This is the lowest figure on record.
Of the 59 deaths, 8 occurred during the construction of commercial buildings, 8 during domestic projects, 8 fatalities were on projects involving special trades, and 8 were in the construction of highways and roads.
Stephen Williams, HSE Chief Inspector of Construction said:
“These figures are very good and I am pleased with progress so far. It is positive news that HSE in partnership with all in industry - employers, unions and stakeholder bodies - are driving down fatalities on sites. However, we should be cautious. One year’s figures should not be viewed in isolation and it is too early to say whether the reduction in fatal injuries represents the significant behaviour change the industry has been promising. Let us not be complacent - one death is still one too many.
“Only by continuing to work with the industry can we improve the health and safety of workers within construction. I applaud the recently agreed short and medium term objectives set by the Strategic Forum for Construction. These include qualifying the workforce, progressing the behavioural change we have started to see in construction and harnessing the capacity of technological change to fuel improved health and safety performance. All of these will help contribute to a successful future for the construction industry.”