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Archive for the ‘Workplace Health and Safety Training’ Category
The Health and Safety Executive has prosecuted Thor Specialities Ltd as a result of a potentially fatal chemical reaction at its plant in Wincham, Northwich on 23 August 2007.
An employee at the plant had been mixing solid and liquid chemicals which eventually caused the release of both toxic and flammable substances into the workplace laboratory. The employee had continued to mix the chemicals together after mistakenly presuming that as there was no initial reaction to the mixing process that it was safe to continue doing so. However the chemical reaction suddenly got out of control and generated the hazardous substances into the working environment.
The chemicals had reacted so rapidly that it became impossible for the employee to bring the situation safely under control and he had to flee the building. There were no other employees in the laboratory at the time of the incident although when the alarm system was activated, another employee returned to the scene to investigate only to be forced to abandon the plant as a result of the cloud of toxic fumes.
A manufacturing firm has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for not creating a sufficient separation area between pedestrian workers and fork lift trucks at its site in Dorset.
On 9 March 2010 a worker at the company had both his legs and ankles broken when a fork lift truck reversed into him.
The company, Verplas Ltd., had failed to provide a safe zone of adequate size for pedestrians in the area in which the fork lift trucks were being operated. Health and Safety protocol dictates that significant measures be taken to ensure the safety of pedestrians and prevent the potential for accidents with fork lift trucks at the place of work.
In situations where employees are not warned of these kinds of dangers or are not provided with sufficient space and distance from the working area where the trucks operate, the risk level for these kind of accidents increases greatly. An effective risk assessment policy or driver safety programme could well have prevented the likelihood of the accident ever taking place.
An employee of Cemex was killed by an explosion at a cement plant in Rugby on 15 January 2008.
The explosion was of such force that the victim was blown through the side wall of the plant to where his body was discovered on the road 10 metres below.
The dead man had been trying to unblock a mixing machine when a sudden violent explosion caused by the build up of steam and dust from inside the machine propelled him through the wall of the building where he fell to the road below. An inquest determined that the explosion almost certainly would have killed the man instantly despite the 30 foot drop to the road.
HSE Passport is committed to helping agencies, umbrella companies, contractors and host companies achieve legal compliance to current Health & Safety legislation by supplying an
effective passport scheme that complies with the guidelines laid out in INDG381.
HSE Passport, the simple and cost effective health and safety compliance scheme (for contract and temporary workers) today launches a brand new health and safety industry blog. It can be found at:
The blog aims to inform recruitment agencies, agency workers, temporary workers, contractors, freelancers and host companies of their duty under current health & safety legislation, whilst operating any temporary contract or position.
Achieving legal compliance is at the forefront of most business agendas, this new industry blog will set to educate and engage with all Health, Safety & Environmental professionals and promotes their HSE Passport for contractors and temporary workers.
A young employee had to have his left arm amputated after it was trapped in a piece of workplace machinery at Natural World Products Ltd. in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland.
While conducting his daily check on 29 June 2010 the employee had noticed a piece of wood had been caught under the conveyor of the screening machine and suffered severe injuries to his arm when he attempted to remove it.
The machine was unguarded and a HSENI investigation has determined that the original guard had been tampered with and reduced in size in order to allow maintenance staff access to internal machine parts while it was running.
A worker at a farming company in Fife had to have two of his toes amputated after they became trapped in machinery on 4 September 2009.
The worker had been attempting to remove water from a grain reception pit when his foot got caught up in the screw auger mechanism inside the pit. The screw auger consists of a large screw inside a metal tube and is used to rotate and mix the grain. The top part of the screw auger is uncovered and the worker’s toes were unfortunately placed in this area.
Although the screw auger was not initially turned on, the worker’s colleague was cleaning out another grain reception pit which required him to turn on the screw auger conveyor which had the function of disposing with the leftover grain. However he mistakenly switched on the screw auger for the grain reception pit of the accident victim causing the screw auger to rotate and inflict serious injury.
A recent survey carried out by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Simplyhealth entitled ‘Absence Management Survey’ has revealed that the most common reason for long-term sickness absence among manual and non-manual employees, is stress.
EssentialSkillz looks into the findings of this survey and investigates the reasons for this increasingly common workplace absentee problem.
Redundancies looming?
There’s nothing like an absent carrot to keep you motivated in your job, especially in light of austerity cut backs. Affecting most industry sectors, headcounts are being analysed, job roles are being scrutinised. “Employers planning to make redundancies in the next six months are significantly more likely to report an increase in mental health problems among their staff (51% compared with 32% who are not planning redundancies).”
Public sector no longer the ‘untouchables’
Organisational change and restructures are common place within public sector bodies, however in more recent times, the end result is leaving people without any form of job security. Gone are the sideways moves, the slotting of departments into other divisions. Put simply, Government cutbacks mean there is a reality that entire public sector initiatives/organisations are fast disappearing, whilst those that do manage to hold on to some kind of role will have to suffer pay freezes and pension cuts. Public sector respondents identify the amount of organisational change and restructuring as the number one cause of stress at work.
The Problem A large event management company in the Midlands was prompted to act, to address the dangers of back disorders in the workplace, by an EssentialSkillz email newsletter publicising the HSE’s “Better Backs” campaign.
Realising their provision and management of manual handling training and risk assessments could be improved, they got in touch to find out how an online solution could be implemented to improve the situation.
The Solution Manual Handling Essentials is an online course designed to help organisations deliver training to employees as soon as they begin work and before they might need to practise a manual handling task. In this training course employees learn:
The bookmakers which was raided by an armed gang, was fined £10,000 for failing to increase security prior to the attack, despite being told to do so.
Two female workers were opening William Hill, in Fleetwoods Lane, Netherton, on the morning of April 17 last year when a man armed with a knife burst in and ordered the terrified staff to hand over cash. One of the workers suffered a whiplash injury after being dragged to the floor during the attack.
The bookmakers had been visited by Sefton Council health and safety officers months before the raid, who had reported a number of safety concerns. Issues with poor outside lighting, CCTV and an insecure alley running between the bookmakers and a pub next door.