Health and Safety News
We scour the Internet for Health and Safety related news items on an almost daily basis.
The news articles and clippings, curated by MD Safety, highlight the requirements for compliance with UK Health and Safety Legislation and best practice across all industry sectors.
The majority of the information and cases will apply to a greater or lesser degree to our broad range of Clients and lessons to be learned will be able to be gained.
School fined after worker injured in fall from ladder
Southend High School for Boys Academy Trust has been sentenced after a worker fell from a ladder. The injured person was using an unsecured ladder at the school to dismantle a canopy roof. The ladder slipped, causing the worker to fall and sustain fractures to his face, a fractured femur and other injuries. The incident happened on 19 February 2019.
Read MoreFirst international guide on psychological health, safety and well-being at work
BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, publishes international guidance on psychological health and safety and managing psychosocial risks at work. The new standard, named ISO 45003: Occupational health and safety management — Psychological health and safety at work — Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks, provides recommendations to organizations on how to prevent work-related psychological ill health in their workers and other relevant interested parties.
Read MoreBuilding contractor fined following the death of worker on house building site
Nickell and Richmond Limited has been prosecuted following a case brought by HSENI, and fined £40,000. The Bangor based company pleaded guilty at Belfast Crown Court to a total of four health and safety offences which resulted in the death of a worker at a house building site in Jordanstown.
Read MoreBeauty business fined £50,000 after customer fell down open trapdoor
A cosmetics firm has pleaded guilty to serious health and safety offences after a member of the public fell down an open trapdoor. On Sunday 28 October 2018 the customer was shopping at City Queen Cosmetics in Luton when she fell through the unguarded trapdoor and down a staircase. She sustained multiple bruises and lacerations all over her body.
Read MoreConstruction company fined after an employee dies after being run over by a dumper truck
BAM Nuttall Limited has been fined after an employee was run over by a dumper vehicle. Inverness Sheriff Court heard that on 28 October 2016, at Blackhillock Substation, Keith, then under construction, Mr John Cameron was changing over a blade on a piece of work equipment at the side of a roadway when he was run over by a six-tonne dumper truck. Mr Cameron sustained serious pelvic injuries and died as a result.
Read MoreCompany and director sentenced after two workers injured in falls from height
A facilities and construction management company, along with the director, have been fined after unsuitable scaffolding partially collapsed, injuring two workers. An HSE investigation found that the tower scaffolding was not suitable for the type of work being undertaken. It was not erected by a person trained and competent to do so, had been erected to a height above recommendation and was loaded with a weight greater than the safe working load stated by the manufacturer.
Read MoreCompany fined after worker suffers loss of thumb and fingers
Food manufacturer, Young’s Seafood Limited, has been fined after a worker was trapped by a mixing machine. Grimsby Crown Court heard that, on 16 October 2017, the 59-year-old worker was creating the mix for fish cakes at the company’s Humberstone Road factory in Grimsby. At the end of a mix run he went to clear the mix from the machine, lifting an interlocked guard that should have stopped the machine from running. He put his hand into the machine without realising it was still running and the augur caught his hand and drew his arm in up to the elbow.
Read MoreHow ‘hybrid’ working may change occupational health forever
With this year’s long lockdown restrictions finally set to end this month, occupational health practitioners will be kept busy managing the operational and practical health and safety challenges of people gradually returning to physical workplaces. However, as Nic Paton argues, it is the emergence of possibly permanent ‘hybrid’ ways of working, and how this may change expectations and demand around health and wellbeing tools and support, that may provide a further challenge, and opportunity, longer term.
Read MoreEngineering company fined after worker suffered multiple injuries
C F Booth (Engineering) Ltd has been sentenced after a 37-year-old worker became entangled and pulled into a CNC lathe. Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard that, on 9 May 2018, he was working on a Hankook CNC lathe setting up a workpiece on a jig which was held in the chuck and on the steady at the company’s site at Lyme Street, Rotherham. As he leaned over the workpiece and the steady to adjust a rear screw, the grub screws on the workpiece caught his t-shirt and he was pulled into the machine. He sustained a large open cut to his arm, 24 stitches to his lip and underwent an operation on his arm.
Read MoreDirector fined after young worker injured in fall from height
Wayne McKnight (trading as RJE Construction) has been fined for safety breaches after a 17-year-old worker fell from a mezzanine floor to the ground below. Sheffield Magistrates’ Court heard that, on 28th February 2019, the worker and two others were building the mezzanine floor at a site in Neepsend Lane, Sheffield. The injured person stepped on a loose board and fell 2.8 metres to the ground below, sustaining cuts and bruises.
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