More recent news

Britain: Blood and feathers firm pays for gassing
A firm that processes blood and feathers has received a six figure fine after a near fatal gassing incident. JG Pears (Newark) Ltd was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £38,052.44 costs at Nottingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to safety offences.
HSE news release • The Star • Risks 387
Hazards news, 20 December 2008

Britain: SITA fined after baling machine death
A major waste management firm has been fined £180,000 after a worker died at one of its recycling centres. SITA UK Limited pleaded guilty to a criminal breach of safety law.
HSE news release and waste industry webpages • Risks 387
Hazards news, 20 December 2008

Europe: Commission disappoints on electronics hazards
The European Commission has disappointed toxics campaigners by rejecting calls to strengthen a Europe-wide law that would have set targets for phasing out additional hazardous substances in electronic products.
ChemSec news release [pdf] and statement calling for the extension of the list of substances identified for phase-out [pdf] • ChemSec website • HEAL website • Clean Production Action • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: £100k fine over worker death
A Nuneaton company has been fined £100,000 and ordered to pay costs of more than £44,000 after a worker was killed in a warehouse incident. Engineer Peter Hudson, 51, was carrying out maintenance work at RS Components when the tragedy happened in January 2005.
Coventry Telegraph • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Firm fined after foot is flattened
A Midlands firm has been fined £10,000 after a young worker was seriously injured when a commercial oven fell on him. The 22-year-old employee of Caltherm (UK) Ltd, whose name has not been released, was helping to move an industrial steam-heated 'DMT' liquid oven weighing 800kg - over threequarters of a ton - when the oven fell from the two pallet trucks.
HSE news release and risk management webpages • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Firms pay for lost limbs
Workers who lose fingers or even limbs as a result of their employer’s negligence might be surprised at the size of fines this month for related criminal safety breaches.
HSE news release (PAS Grantham Ltd case) and HSE news release (MJ Curle case) • The Citizen • Building • Shropshire Star • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Fines for staff asbestos exposures
A Kilkcaldy leisure firm and its director have been fined after at least 15 tradespeople were exposed to airborne asbestos fibres over almost two months. Edward Dean Melville, a director of the company, allowed work to continue on the project despite concerns being raised by workers about the possible presence of asbestos within the building - work was finally stopped by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after they were contacted directly by one of the site workers.
HSE news release • HSE hidden killer campaign • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Major injuries soar offshore
Major injuries offshore have increased dramatically, latest figures show. Newly published Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics show major injuries were up by nearly 13 per cent (12.8 per cent) in 2007/08, from 39 to 44. The major injury rate was up by 13 per cent, from 138.4 major injuries per 100,000 workers to 156.41.
HSE news release • Offshore injury, ill health and incident statistics 2007/2008 [pdf] • Where is the justice?, Hazards magazine, October-December 2008 • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Site workers must have their say
Construction union UCATT has pledged to play a full and active role in the government’s inquiry into construction fatalities, but says the investigation must listen to the construction workers facing the risks, not the “faceless bureaucrats defending their own little fiefdoms.”
UCATT news release • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: Construction fatalities inquiry moves forward
The government has announced more details of an inquiry into the underlying causes of construction fatalities, promised in the summer after unions raised concerns about stubbornly high death rates in the sector.
DWP news release • Risks 386
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

Britain: New HSE strategy needs new resources
Construction union UCATT has welcomed the Health and Safety Executive’s new strategy consultation, but has warned the safety watchdog will need more resources to do its job effectively.
UCATT news release • HSE news release and full draft strategy document, The health and safety of Great Britain - Be part of the solution [pdf] • Risks 385
Hazards news, 13 December 2008

USA: Wal-Mart stampede death ‘preventable’
The death of a temporary Wal-Mart worker trampled by sales shoppers at a New York store could have been avoided, UFCW - the union that represents retail workers - has said. Jdimytai Damour, 34, was crushed as he and other employees attempted to unlock the doors of the Long Island store at 5am on Friday 28 November.
Wal-Mart statements • CNN report and video • The Oregonian • The Times • BBC News Online • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

USA: Democrats urged to act on safety crisis
A major US newspaper is urging lawmakers to get past politics and take occupational health and safety seriously. The Las Vegas Sun, which earlier this year ran a hard-hitting series on safety and enforcement problems in construction, says in an editorial that lawmakers should see worker safety for what it is — a public health crisis that costs America billions of dollars a year.
Las Vegas Sun editorial and related story • New York Times • AFL-CIO Now • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

South Africa: Some progress on mines safety
Legislation on safety in South Africa’s notoriously hazardous mines has been beefed up following a lengthy union campaign. While welcoming the new law, which will introduce stiffer penalties for safety breaches, mining union NUM has expressed dismay that the findings of a presidential mine safety audit have yet to be published.
NUM NEC report • ICEM news report • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

Global: Corporate responsibility is still missing
According to Garrett Brown, who co-ordinates the US-based Maquildora Health and Safety Support Network: “The balance sheet of 15 years of CSR programmes is only marginal improvements for global supply chains as a whole; uneven, haphazard progress among industry leaders; while the vast majority of transnational corporations have no occupational health and safety (OHS) programmes for their supply chains at all.”
Genuine worker participation - An indispensable key to effective global OHS, Garrett Brown, 2008 Professional Conference on Industrial Hygiene, November 2008 [pdf] • American Industrial Hygiene Association power point presentation and resource flyer [pdf].
Related resources: Prospect CSR webpages and Negotiator's guide to corporate social responsibility • Risks 385
Hazardsnews, 6 December 2008

Britain: Most sites too dangerous to work
An inspection blitz on construction sites in a London borough led to work in threequarters of the workplaces visited being shut down. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) crackdown in Waltham Forest saw inspectors order all work stopped on 12 of 16 sites visited.
HSE news release • Building • Construction News • Epping Forest Guardian • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

Britain: Companies fined over oil rig tragedy
Two multinational energy companies have been fined £150,000 each after a court heard how a rig worker plunged to his death because proper safety measures were not in place. Norwich Crown Court was told that industry giants Shell UK, which owned the rig, and Amec Group, which employed David Soanes and provided maintenance staff, were both responsible for health and safety.
HSE news release • Norwich Evening News • Norfolk Eastern Daily Press • Financial Times • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

Britain: TUC welcomes new HSE strategy
The TUC has welcomed the Health and Safety Executive’s draft strategy to make UK workplaces safer. The plan, ‘The health and safety of Great Britain - Be part of the solution’, was launched by the HSE in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff on 3 December, and is the start of a three month consultation on its future direction and role.
HSE news release and full draft strategy document, The health and safety of Great Britain - Be part of the solution [pdf] • TUC news release • Building
HSE consultation: Comments can be submitted online or in writing. so by visiting  where they will find the HSE strategy and its supporting documents. The consultation closes on 2 March 2009 • Risks 385
Hazards news, 6 December 2008

Britain: Coroner warns of deadly contract pressures
A coroner investigating the killing of a BBC journalist in Somalia has called on the corporation to ensure journalists are never put under pressure to go on dangerous missions. Dr Peter Dean recorded a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of Kate Peyton who was shot dead in Mogadishu in February 2005.
NUJ news release • IFJ news release • The Guardian • The Times • The Telegraph • BBC News Online • Risks 385
Hazards news 6 December 2008

Britain: Sellafield fined after demolition death
Nuclear firm Sellafield Ltd and a demolition contractor have received six figure fines after a worker died when he fell almost 100 metres. The Cumbrian firm and sub-contractor PC Richardson & Co (Middlesbrough) Ltd (demolition contractors) were fined after pleading guilty at Carlisle Crown Court to charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the death of 36-year-old Neil Cannon on 9 January 2003.
HSE news release • NW Evening Mail • Risks 384
Hazards news, 29 December 2008

USA: Obama signals tougher line on regulation
US president-elect Barack Obama has signalled his administration will toughen regulations at and support enforcement by federal agencies that oversee consumer products, environmental policy and workplace safety. Workplace safety regulations will be up for an overhaul, Mr Obama and his advisers have suggested in pre-election letters to AFGE members at federal agencies.
Letters from Obama to AFGEl • Wall Street Journal • Risks 384 •
Hazards news, 29 December 2008

Global: Toxic trade defenders condemned
Global trade union confederation ITUC has joined the chorus of condemnation of the decision last month to exclude chrysotile asbestos and the pesticide endosulfan from the list of dangerous products under the Rotterdam Convention, the international agreement which regulates exports of hazardous chemicals.
ITUC news release • Risks 382
Hazards news, 15 November 2008

Australia: Unions want clampdown on unsafe work
Unions in Australia have said they support new proposals to increase the maximum fines for companies and directors who cause death or injury to workers, but say the penalties proposes are not severe enough to be an effective deterrent. They are also concerned that bad employers will still find it easy to escape prosecution.
ACTU news release • National Review website and news release • Canberra Times • ABC News • The Australian • Risks 382
Hazards news, 15 November 2008

Britain: Fine after worker engulfed in flames
A Nottinghamshire scrap firm has been fined £2,000 after a worker was engulfed in flames. Thomas Cooper, 59, suffered severe burns to the backs of his legs, hands and arms, covering 17 per cent of his body, after a spark from cutting equipment ignited a fuel spill. A district judge sitting at Nottingham Magistrates Court found Phoenix Autoparts 2000 Ltd negligent in not identifying the potential risk or carrying out a sufficient assessment.
HSE news release • Nottingham Evening Post • Risks 382
15 November 2008

Britain: Shopfitter fined after tower scaffold fall
An East Sussex firm has been fined £20,000 after a worker suffered serious head injuries when he fell from an unprotected mobile tower scaffold. E&F Joinery pleaded guilty to three breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
HSE news release and falls from height webpages • Construction News • Building • Bracknell Forest Standard • Risks 382
15 November 2008

Britain: Disappearing inspectors can’t enforce safety
The dwindling band of frontline Health and Safety Executive inspectors do not have the capacity to properly enforce criminal safety law, a new report has concluded. ‘Where is the justice?’, an analysis published this week in the trade union health and safety magazine Hazards, concludes: “It has far fewer inspectors to do the gruntwork, far more workplaces to inspect and a government intent on less enforcement activity in fewer places.”
Where is the justice?, Hazards magazine, number 101, 2008 • The Herald • Fife Free Press • Morning Star • Risks 382
15 November 2008

Britain: Site union wants accountability for deaths
There are wide regional disparities in construction deaths, the union UCATT has found. General secretary Alan Ritchie commented: “Unless the number of prosecutions and the penalties increase, bosses will believe that they can continue to get away with cutting corners on health and safety.”
UCATT news release • Fife Free Press • The Herald • Risks 382
Hazards news, 15 November 2008

South Africa: Twenty-three die in danger truck
The death of at least 21 forestry workers in South Africa when travelling in an unsafe open truck has been condemned by trade unions. National union federation COSATU said it is “shocked and angry” at the death of the workers when the open truck on which they we being transported to work collided with a KFC truck.
COSATU news release • BWI news release • Risks 383
Hazards news 22 November 2008

Italy: Murder charges follow factory blaze
An Italian judge has ordered murder and manslaughter charges to be brought against managers of a ThyssenKrupp plant where seven workers died last year in a blaze. The fire at the German steelmaker's plant in Turin prompted widespread calls for improved safety in the workplace.
International Herald Tribune • Risks 383
Hazards news 22 November 2008

Britain: HSE injury investigation levels fall further
Official investigations into major workplace injuries have dropped dramatically, a Unite report has revealed. Research for the union found investigations into major injuries declined by 43 per cent between 2001/02 and 2006/07. In 2006/07, the most recent year for which statistics are available, only 1-in-10 major injuries (10.5 per cent) reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) were investigated.
Unite news release • Incidents reported to the Health and Safety Executive: Lack of investigation 2001-2007 [pdf] • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Britain: Scottish dismay at loss of safety protection
Unions in Scotland have expressed concern at cutbacks in Health and Safety Executive frontline inspectors at a time when work injury levels are remaining stubbornly high. Grahame Smith, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said: “The number of HSE inspectors has fallen from 182 to 158 since 2004, ironically the same years as the ICL explosion, the worst loss of life in an onshore industrial accident since 22 workers lost their lives in the upholstery factory in James Watt Street 1968.”
STUC news release • BBC News Online • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Britain: Concerns surface about safety watchdog
Concerns about the condition of Britain’s shrinking workplace safety watchdog have been raised by campaigners and safety professionals. Hazards Campaign spokesperson Hilda Palmer said the figures played down deaths from occupational diseases and omitted entirely work-related road traffic accidents and workplace deaths in coastal waters or in aircraft incidents, and warned that a trend away from inspection and enforcement was extremely damaging.
Hazards Campaign news release • IOSH news release • BBC News Online • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Britain: Firms fined £130,000 after work death
Two firms have been fined a total of £130,000 after a worker died in a 23 metre fall on a Maidstone construction site. Lentjes UK Ltd (formally known as Lurgi (UK) Ltd) and Rafako SA were fined at Maidstone Crown Court after pleading guilty to health and safety offences.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Britain: Serious injury leads to £10,000 fine
A firm has been fined £10,000 after a driver was seriously injured when he fell down an unguarded and unlit stairwell. Logistics company TDG UK Ltd was also ordered to pay £2,400 costs, after pleading guilty at Halton Magistrates Court to a safety offence.
HSE news release • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Global: Corporate accountability portal online
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has launched a free online portal, pulling together information on lawsuits across the world alleging human rights abuses by companies. Occupational and environmental health abuses feature prominently among the initial collection of cases.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre news release • Corporate legal accountability portal • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

New Zealand: Mines need worker inspectors
A New Zealand union has called for the reintroduction of elected worker safety inspectors in mining, to improve the industry’s safety record. The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) was commenting after a government announcement that it will develop further measures to improve mine safety and expects that to include legislation for “health and safety check inspectors.”
EPMU news release • Risks 381
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Ireland: Union says deaths dwarf official figure
Work-related deaths in Ireland are over 20 times the official figure, a union has said. SIPTU safety and health adviser Sylvester Cronin criticised official record keeping and enforcement and called on the Irish government to officially acknowledge all work-related deaths in Ireland.
SIPTU news release • Irish Times • The Corkman • Risks 381 •
Hazards news, 8 November 2008

Britain: More enforcement will mean fewer deaths
Greater emphasis on enforcement of safe workplaces is the best way to reduce the workplace fatality rate, unions have said. Responding to the latest statistics, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber added “greater enforcement can only happen if the government increases resources to local authorities and the HSE for inspection and enforcement activities.”
TUC news release • Risks 380
Hazards news, 1 November 2008

Britain: Triple death highlights Corus corporate role
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said the explosion at the Corus steelworks in Port Talbot highlights failures to manage safety at a corporate level. Three Corus employees - Andrew Hutin, Stephen Galsworthy and Len Radford - died in the November 2001 incident, while a further 12 employees and contractors suffered serious injuries.
HSE news release • Port Talbot Guardian • South Wales Evening Post • Corus health and safety record • Risks 380
Hazards news, 1 November 2008

Britain: Man was killed by ammonia fumes
A Wigan cold storage company has been fined £35,000 following an incident in which a man was killed. Engineer Alan Golden, 54, died following a massive leak of ammonia at the Golborne premises of Cold Move Ltd on 27 September 2005.
Wigan Observer • Shropshire Star • Risks 380
Hazards news, 1 November 2008

Britain: Network Rail blamed for Grayrigg crash
Track maintenance failures contributed to a train crash in Cumbria which left one person dead and dozens injured, a report has concluded. A Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) report said rail infrastructure company Network Rail incorrectly set up points that failed and were the ultimate cause of the derailment.
RAIB news release and report • RMT news release • ASLEF news release • New Civil Engineer • BBC News Online • Risks 380
Hazards news, 1 November 2008

Britain: Firm fined after agency worker fall
A firm has been fined £3,500 after an agency worker fell from a platform, breaking his pelvis. Oil & Gas Systems Ltd (OGSL) was also ordered to pay costs of £2,457.80 after pleading guilty to safety offences.
HSE news release • Risks 380
Hazards news, 1 November 2008

Britain: Haulage firm fined £5,000 over death 
A Scottish haulage company has been fined £5,000 for breaking safety rules after one of its drivers died in a fall from his tanker. Glasgow-based Carntyne Transport pleaded guilty to safety offences at Cupar Sheriff Court.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • The Scotsman • Daily Record • Risks 379
Hazards news, 25 October 2008

Britain: Firm fined £300k over electrician's death
Engineering firm Mitie Engineering Services (Edinburgh) has been fined £300,000 after one of their electricians died at work. Michael Adamson’s sister Louise Adamson said: “Scotland still has one of the worst work-related death records and until you have individuals held responsible for these, they are unlikely to sit up and take real notice.”
HSE news release • Daily Record • BBC News Online • Risks 379
Hazards new, 25 October 2008

Britain: Toothless enforcement ‘invites disasters’
Health and safety enforcement in Britain is withering away and Scotland has been hit particularly hard, academics have claimed. Figures obtained by the University of Stirling’s Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group (OEHRG) show that the number of people employed by workplace safety enforcement body the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have fallen by 13 per cent in Scotland.
University of Stirling news release • Official ICL Stockline enquiry website • ICL Stockline campaign website • BBC News Online • Risks 379
Hazards news, 25 October 2008

Britain: Anger at crane death inaction
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) decision not pursue a prosecution relating to the death of Polish carpenter Zbigniew Swirzynski “is a kick in the teeth” for construction workers, site union UCATT has said. Mr Swirzynski was killed on 15 January 2007, when a tower crane collapsed and crushed him on a construction site in the centre of Liverpool.
UCATT news release • HSE news release • Contract Journal • BBC News Online • Risks 379
Hazards news, 25 October 2008

Britain: Company guilty over electrocution 
Mitie Engineering Services (Edinburgh) Ltd has been found guilty of breaching health and safety laws after Michael Adamson, 26, was killed in 2005 while working on a live wire which had been marked “not in use” at a JJB fitness centre.
Statement from the Adamson family • BBC News Online • STV • Edinburgh Evening News • Building • Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

Britain: Apology call after exoneration of rail workers
Rail union RMT is to seek an apology from transport police after two track workers arrested in connection with the Grayrigg train crash and kept under caution for eleven months were this week cleared. added that systematic management failings, lack of resources and imposition of unrealistic workloads were at the heart of the fatal derailment that took place at Grayrigg, Cumbria, in February 2007, causing the death of an elderly woman.
RMT news release • BBC News Online • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

Britain: Union anger as bosses again get off
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has welcomed the guilty verdict in the Mitie Engineering prosecution but said individual managers should be held to account after deaths at work. Assistant secretary Ian Tasker said: “Yet again we witness a bereaved family left cheated by a justice system that appears powerless to punish those who take management decisions which place the lives of their workers at risk.”
STUC news release • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

Britain: £1.2m fines over offshore worker’s death
Fines of £1.2m have been handed down to two companies over an incident on board a North Sea support vessel that killed one oil worker and injured another. Pipefitter Matthew Grey was killed and his colleague Norman Jackson injured when they were struck by falling steel clamps on the Bleo Holm floating production and storage installation when a lifting operation went wrong.
HSE news release • The Journal • BBC News Online • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

Britain: Recycling firm fined after lorry fall
A recycling company has been fined £2,500 after an agency worker suffered serious injuries in a fall from a lorry. European Metal Recycling Ltd was also ordered to pay £2,454 costs by Lincoln magistrates after pleading guilty to a breach of the work at height regulations.
HSE news release and falls from vehicles webpage • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

Britain: New law introduces stiffer penalties
The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill became law on 16 October. Under the new legislation, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008, the maximum fine in magistrates' courts will be raised to £20,000 for most offences and imprisonment will be made an option for a wider range of breaches.
DWP news release • Health and Safety (Offences) Bill [pdf] • Risks 378
Hazards news, 18 October 2009

USA: Watchdog says hectic pace was deadly
Nevada workplace safety regulators say a building contractor's poor safety practices and the rush to finish work at a major development on the Las Vegas Strip led to the death of a construction worker in June. The findings by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration contained the most explicit connection to date between safety and speed in the midst of the $32 billion building boom on the Strip.
Las Vegas Sun news report and related editorial • Risks 377
Hazards news, 11 October 2009

Britain: Firm fined over falls risk
A North East roofing company has been fined £6,000 and ordered to pay costs of £17,028 after it failed to ensure that roofing work was carried out safely on an industrial building on Wearside. Abercorn Homes Ltd was found guilty at Sunderland Magistrates’ Court of two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE news release and information on the Work at Heights Regulations • Risks 377
Hazards news, 11 October 2009

Britain: Scots body will probe accidents at work 
A body to investigate accidents in Scottish workplaces has been set up in an effort to improve safety.  The Specialist Health and Safety Division will examine cases reported to the procurator fiscal by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini QC said the creation of the department will produce a concentration of expertise and help to identify bad practice.
COPFS news release • STUC news release • BBC News Online • Risks 377
Hazards news, 11 October 2009

Britain: Six figure payout after crushing death
The family of a Gloucestershire man killed at work in May 2003 has been awarded £335,000 compensation at the High Court in London. The claim was brought against the employer of Unite member Dean Thomas who worked for JR Crompton Limited and was crushed by a hydraulic lowering device whilst working inside the enclosure of a paper slitter-rewinder machine when a workmate pressed the wrong button.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • The Forester • Risks 377
Hazards news, 11 October 2009

Australia: Hardie 'set out to mislead investors'
Former directors and executives of Australian building giant James Hardie issued inaccurate, misleading and deficient public announcements about the company's ability to compensate asbestos victims, the country’s corporate regulator has claimed. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission this week launched its assault on former Hardie directors and executives in the NSW Supreme Court, which was overflowing with dozens of asbestos victims and their supporters.
The Australian plus follow up story • Sydney Morning Herald • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Tories will ‘sweep aside’ safety laws
Conservative plans for education that include “sweeping aside” health and safety legislation have been condemned by teaching union NASUWT. In a speech this week to the Conservative Party’s Birmingham conference, shadow spokesperson for children, schools and families Michael Gove said “we will act to give teachers the power to take children beyond their comfort zone by sweeping away absurd health and safety regulations which attempt to squeeze all risk out of life.”
Speech by Michael Gove MP • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Director banned for asbestos crimes
A company director has been banned from running a firm for four years after removing and transporting asbestos without a licence. Robert McCart must also pay over £44,000 in fines, costs and compensation after being prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA).
HSE news release and asbestos licensing webpages • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Inadequate training led to forklift death
Two firms have been fined after a poorly trained worker was killed when the forklift truck he was driving overturned. Shane Neal, 34, was killed on 2 May 2003 when he was crushed by a truck in Hangar no.1 at the former RAF Cardington, Bedfordshire.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

Britain: Homicide charges call after tug tragedy
Clydeport should face culpable homicide charges relating to the deaths of three tug crew, a top union official has said. Unite Scottish secretary John Quigley called for immediate action after the release this week of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch’s (MAIB) report into the sinking of the Flying Phantom.
MAIB report • Risks 376
Hazards news, 4 October 2008

South Africa: Miners ‘dying like flies’
The horrific death rate in South Africa’s mines is seeing workers ‘dying like flies’, unions have said. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said 127 had died already this year, adding it “fully supports the NUM’s policy of downing tools every time a worker dies, as both a mark of respect and a protest at the excessive loss of life.”
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Future of safety enforcement conference
A major conference organised by the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) is to examine ‘The future of safety enforcement’. The event, which is supported by the TUC, will take place in London on 24 November.
The future of safety enforcement, Hamilton House, London, 24 November 2008. Cost: £50 (individuals/trade union representatives); £100 (public bodies); £150 (lawyers, private companies); £20 (unemployed). Conference programme and registration form • Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Laundry fined after neck-trapping incident
An Essex laundry has been fined £30,000 after an employee was seriously injured when his neck and hands were trapped in a conveyor. After pleading guilty to safety offences, Eastern Counties Laundries Ltd, of Coggeshall, Essex was also ordered to pay £15,000 costs at Colchester Crown Court.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Unilever doesn’t care for workers’ skin
A UK multinational with a multimillion pound trade in skin care products has been fined after trashing the skin of its own staff. Unilever was ordered to pay £28,000 in fines and costs after 25 Merseyside workers contracted dermatitis.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Leg loss costs firm £20,000
NYK Logistics has been fined £20,000 and £5,941 costs after an admin worker lost her leg after being hit by a forklift truck.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Corus in court again for safety failings
Steel maker Corus has been fined again for serious safety failings. It the latest in a long sequence of prosecutions, the firm was this week fined £15,000 at Hartlepool Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £6,248 costs after a crane operator was crushed and seriously injured.
HSE news release • Hartlepool Mail • Northern Echo •
More on recent Corus deaths and prosecutions • Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Bosses jailed for fireball death cover-up
Two directors of a Dorset firm that broke criminal safety laws leading to the death of an employee, then pressured staff to give “false and erroneous evidence” to cover their tracks, have been jailed along with an employee. Reliance Scrap Metal Merchants (Parkstone) director David Matthews, was sentenced to three years for perverting the course of justice, fellow director Michael Anderson received 15 months, while employee David Lomas was jailed for six months, after admitting the same charge.
Risks 375
Hazards news, 27 September 2008

Britain: Trust fined for hospital shock
A hospital trust has been fined after a cleaner suffered severe injuries from an electric shock suffered as he operated a steam cleaner. East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust pleaded guilty at Hastings Magistrates’ Court and was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,466.71 for breaching the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Britain: Boss escapes jail for silica use
A company boss whose firm used deadly silica despite the process being banned for 58 years has received a £26,000 fine but has escaped jail. Andrew Thomson, trading as Thomson Sandblast, of Great Harwood, was also ordered to pay £24,000 costs and was told that magistrates had considered a custodial sentence.
Global Unions cancer campaign • Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Britain: Bootful of cement causes burns
An Oxford building company has been fined £500 after one of its employees sustained burns to his legs after wet concrete poured into his Wellington boots. In addition to the fine, O'Brien & McIntyre LLP was ordered at Stratford upon Avon Magistrates' Court to pay £150 prosecution costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Control of Substance Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH).
Risks 374
Hazards news, 20 September 2008

Canada: Inquiry call after mushroom farm deaths
The head of the union umbrella organisation in the Canadian province of British Columbia has called for an investigation into the deaths of three mushroom farm workers. “We need a public inquiry that's going to find out how we stop these deaths,” said Jim Sinclair, head of the BC Federation of Labour.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: £75,000 fine after quarry worker dies
A quarry company has been fined £75,000 after a man died at its plant in Cornwall. Robert Bickley, 42, died from head injuries in July 2004 after he became entangled in the fixed guard on a rock crushing machine – and the firm, Aram Resources Ltd, was reprimanded by the judge after it tried to pin the blame on the worker.
HSE news release and quarrying webpages • Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Small fine after big fall
A Hampshire company has been fined just £234 after an employee was seriously injured in a workplace fall. Profile Construction & Interiors Ltd, based in Alresford, pleaded guilty this week at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court and was also ordered to pay £200 costs and a victim surcharge of £15 for a breach of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Death fall after protection was removed
A construction company has been fined £125,000 for health and safety breaches after the death of a Polish worker. Witold Jellen, 56, died in July 2007 after falling eight metres during work to convert the former ABC cinema in Falkirk into a sports bar – but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which says bad publicity is part of the punishment facing errant firms, issued no press release on the case.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Fine after second blast at Glaxo plant
Multinational drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline has been fined £50,000 after a second explosion at its Ayrshire factory – but received the cut down fine because it pleaded guilty. Two workers suffered serious burns and others were treated for shock after the blast – but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which says bad publicity is part of the punishment facing errant firms, issued no press release on the case.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Firms fined over animal feeder deaths
Two Lanarkshire companies have been fined a total of £63,750 after two men were killed while cleaning an animal feeder which started up unexpectedly. Hamilton Sheriff Court heard the deaths of Charles Lee Hinshelwood and Peter Brown in 2005 could have been avoided if the power supply had been isolated; Galloway and MacLeod Ltd and Barr Electrical Contractors Ltd received penalties reduced by 25 per cent after entering guilty pleas.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Companies fined after crane calamity
Two companies have been fined a total of £20,000 following an incident at a Lancashire construction site that could have ended in a multiple fatalities. The firms were prosecuted at Warrington Magistrates’ Court after a 35 tonne truck-mounted telescopic crane overturned.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: HSE passes on on-the-spot penalties
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has waived its right to apply for new civil sanctions open to enforcement agencies under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill, which gained Royal Assent at the end of July. The bill allows regulars to apply to the minister for new powers to impose fixed monetary penalty notices - on-the-spot fines, variable fines or enforcement undertakings, legal agreements where the offender has to carry out specific activities to improve health and safety.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Union vigil for killed site worker
A minute's silence has been held in memory of a construction worker who died after an horrific incident on a building site in Oxfordshire last month. Altin Balla, 28, from Aberystwyth, died after he became trapped by steel girders against his neck.
Risks 373
Hazards, 13 September 2008

Britain: Demolition director done for fall
A director of a Surrey demolition firm has been fined £5,000 after an electrician was seriously injured in a fall. Nicholas Anderson was also ordered to pay £1,657 costs after pleading guilty to a safety offence and Wooldridge Ecotec Ltd was fined £15,000 and £4,971 costs.
Risks 372
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: BAE fined after worker badly burned
A major munitions company has been fined £50,000 after a 21-year-old agency worker was severely burned when pyrotechnic substances ignited. BAE Systems Land Systems (Munitions and Ordnance) Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £15,000 at Cardiff Crown Court.
Risks 372
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: Most workers won’t blow the whistle
Fewer than one in every three workers would blow the whistle on their employer if they broke health and safety laws, according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). A YouGov poll commissioned by IOSH found that only 28 per cent of people would report their company or organisation to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if it was in breach of health and safety legislation.
Risks 372
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

Britain: More enforcement needed on opencast sites
A union leader who represents opencast mining workers in Scotland has called for a significant rise in the number of health and safety inspectors to patrol what he describes as “the most dangerous jobs in the country.” Jim Walls, a regional convener was the union Unite, was speaking after Scottish Coal was fined £400,000 for safety breaches in connection with the deaths of two men killed in an accident at the Pennyvenie opencast mine in Ayrshire.
Risks 372
Hazards news, 6 September 2008

USA: OSHA fiddles while workers die
A top US union safety official has accused the government of fiddling workplace death figures. Workplace fatalities figures released last week showed a 6 per cent fall in 2007, but a union official says the government had wrongly attributed the fall to its business friendly policies.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

South Africa: Mine union protest at rash of deaths
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa has said a rash of deaths at mining giants AngloGold and AngloPlatinum are pivotal proof that the country is in need of rigid safety regulations. The spate of fatalities came earlier this month, in the same week the Chamber of Mines lobbied against tougher criminal penalties and corporate liability for workplace safety crimes during public hearings of the proposed Mine Health and Safety Amendment Bill
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Nepal: Union victory for murdered bus driver
A planned national strike by transport workers in Nepal was called off after the government agreed to provide the family of a murdered bus driver with compensation. On 16 August, after eight days of strike action, the government and unions agreed on a six-point plan, which includes providing the family of Khawas with 1 million Nepalese rupees (£7,800) and arranging free education for his children; as part of the agreement, the government also agreed to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice and to step up security for transport workers, particularly along highways.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Police fear officer death charge
Police bosses in Manchester have set up a £1m ‘contingency fund’ to pay for possible fines and legal costs after an officer was shot dead by a colleague during a training session, according to a report by the Manchester Evening News (MEN). A probe by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, with support from the Health and Safety Executive, is expected to identify a series of blunders which led to the death in June of Pc Ian Terry.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Firm fined after groin injury
A Lincoln firm has been fined after a worker suffered a severe groin injury while moving a 96 kilogram oven. Catering equipment manufacturer Lincat Limited was fined £19,400 and ordered to pay £4,800 costs at Lincoln Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and two contraventions of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations.
HSE news release and manual handling assessment guide • Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Site boss denies teen manslaughter
A building site boss has appeared in court to deny the manslaughter of a 15-year-old Essex boy crushed to death at work. Adam Gosling, from Latchingdon, was killed during the demolition of a brick wall at the site in Hadley Wood, Enfield, on 23 April last year.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Scottish Coal fined over deaths
Scottish Coal Company Ltd has been fined £400,000 for health and safety breaches over the deaths of two miners in Ayrshire. It admitted failing to ensure a safe system of working at Pennyvenie open cast mine near Dalmellington.
Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

Britain: Call to link safety fines to share price
A simple change in the law to vary the powers open to Scottish judges in cases of death or injury at work could dramatically change the climate of corporate responsibility, a member of the Scottish parliament has said. SNP MSP Bill Wilson this week launched a consultation on a proposed Member's Bill to allow judges to fine companies on the basis of their share price rather than their running costs, and to give courts the power to scrutinise company books.
Bill Wilson MSP news release and Criminal Sentencing (Equity Fines) Bill – consultation [pdf] • The Herald • Press and Journal • The Scotsman • Risks 371
Hazards news, 30 August 2008

USA: How manufacturing doubt kills workers
It happens all the time. When a study is published linking a workplace chemical to serious disease, a scientist working for the industry disputes the finding. Writing in the current issue of Hazards magazine, US academic David Michaels reveals industry has taken its lead “directly from the tobacco industry’s playbook”, employing the same tactics and the same public relations firms.
Spin cycle: Product defence – how industry money protects killer chemicals, Hazards magazine, August 2008 • Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy (SKAPP)

Doubt is their product: How industry's assault on science threatens your health, David Michaels, Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-19-530067-3, £14.99 (hardback) • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

China: Coal mine explosion kills 26
Chinese rescuers have recovered the last four bodies of miners killed in an 18 August gas blast at a coal mine in northeast China, bringing the death toll to 26. A total of 81 miners were working underground when the incident happened at the Baijiagou colliery in Liaoning Province, said Sun Shikui, head of the general hospital affiliated to the Tiefa coal industry group.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Small fine after three are seriously hurt
A Wolverhampton scaffolding firm has been fined £3,300 after an incident in which three workers were seriously hurt. Pedley Scaffolding was also ordered to pay costs of £5,318 at Stafford Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to safety breaches.
HSE news release and construction and falls webpages • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Firms fined for ‘preventable’ death fall
Two firms have been fined more than £100,000 for the “entirely preventable” death of a Midlands worker and father of two who fell more than 20ft from a tower scaffold. Darren Handley, 36, died in October 2004. Smethwick-based Spanclad Ltd and its principal contractor, Derby-based Westminster Building Co Ltd were both fined at Northampton Crown Court earlier this month for breaching health and safety laws.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Scrapyard perjurers cleared of manslaughter
Dorset firm Reliance Scrap Metal Merchants (Parkstone), where bosses broke criminal safety laws leading to the death of an employee, then pressured staff to give “false and erroneous evidence” to cover their tracks, has been found not guilty of manslaughter. Thomas Mooney, 64, was helping to cut cylinders of highly dangerous gases when an acetylene cylinder exploded at the site in Poole, Dorset, in 2005.
Dorset Police news release • Morpeth Herald • BBC News Online • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Company director jailed for manslaughter
Company director Sharaz Butt, 44, has been jailed for 12 months for manslaughter and barred from being a company director for five years after a Chinese builder died while working for him. Alcon Construction employee Wu Zhu Weng was pronounced dead at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after the fall in January this year.
Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Britain: Trust fined for ‘appalling mismanagement’
‘An appalling catalogue of mismanagement’ at Boston's Pilgrim Hospital has resulted in a hospital Trust paying out £18,500 in safety fines. Boston Magistrates’ Court was told how necessary safety measures relating to the use of glutaraldehyde, a chemical used to develop film in x-ray machines, had not been in place.
HSE news release and COSHH webpages • Risks 370
Hazards news, 23 August 2008

Turkey: ‘Human sandbags’ die in shipyard
Workers were used instead of sandbags for a test run of the lifeboat of a ship in Istanbul's Tuzla shipyards resulting in three deaths and 12 injuries. During the test run, the rope tying the lifeboat to the ship snapped and the boat crashed into the water, causing the deaths of Emrah Vato?lu, 19, Ramazan Ergün, 36, and Ramazan Çetinkaya, 25.
Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: Companies exposed workers to asbestos risk
Two companies in Essex have been fined after workers in their employment were exposed to asbestos containing materials. R Maskell Ltd of Loughton was fined £150,000 with costs of £30,000 at Ipswich Crown Court while LCH Contracts Ltd of Billericay was fined £70,000 and costs of £13,821.
Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: £1,500 fine after fall from heights convictions
A court in Nottingham has fined the manager of a construction company, Real Estate (Midlands) Ltd. just £1,500 after he was prosecuted for four offences following an incident led to an employee at a site in Mansfield suffering severe injuries, including short-term memory loss. Ronald Cordon, aged 63, suffered major injuries when he fell two metres from an unprotected wall on 6 November 2006 while doing bricklaying work on a housing construction site in Mansfield.
HSE press release • Risks 369
Hazards news, 16 August 2008

Britain: Construction giant fined for fatal fall
One of Britain’s best known construction companies has been fined £70,000 after a worker died in a “wholly avoidable” workplace fall. Carillion JM Ltd, formerly known as Mowlem plc, was also ordered to pay £24,000 in costs at Maidstone Crown Court for a criminal breach of safety law.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Director admits manslaughter charge
A company director admitted manslaughter after a court heard how a Chinese worker plunged to his death at a Norfolk building site. Sharaz Butt was charged with the killing following a two month investigation by police and the Health and Safety Executive.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Three die during blaze on boat
Three trawler workers, believed to be two Filipinos and a Latvian, have died in a fire on a fishing boat moored in an Aberdeenshire harbour. It is believed that the crew lived on the vessel while it was not at sea, to save money.
Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Seafarer deaths hit new high
The number of merchant seafarer deaths recorded by the government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has hit an all-time high. Seafarers’ union Nautilus UK has said the figures are “disturbing” and have exposed “unacceptable” complacency on the part of some maritime authorities.
MAIB annual report 2007 • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Union dismay at ‘dangerous’ report
Unions have reacted with dismay to a government report that says small firms who spend just minutes a day on health and safety admin should do even less. TUC said the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) report, ‘Improving outcomes from health and safety’, which considers the effects of the health and safety regulatory regime on smaller businesses, is a “disappointment” and UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said it was “dangerous”.
TUC news release • UCATT report • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

Britain: Less than three minutes a day for safety
The government says small firms spend under three and a half minutes a day on safety admin – but thinks this should be slashed further to reduce costs. A 6 August report from the Better Regulation Executive (BRE) found small businesses spend on average 20 hours a year on safety administration, or three minutes and 17 seconds per day – and it says paring this back to a daily average of under two and a half minutes – a 25 per cent reduction – “would save low risk businesses £150 million a year.”
BERR news release • Improving outcomes from health and safety, BRE, August 2008 • Risks 368
Hazards news, 9 August 2008

USA: $5m fine after 13 die in sugar blast
The US safety watchdog OSHA has issued 120 citations and a proposed $5m fine for safety violations at the Imperial Sugar Co plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia, where incredibly high levels of sugar dust fuelled an explosion on 7 February that killed 13 workers. Dozens of other workers suffered serious injuries, and three remain hospitalised, two in critical condition.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Acoustics firm didn’t listen to lessons
A Lancashire manufacturing firm has been fined £4,000 after two separate incidents in which employees were injured. Janesville Acoustics Ltd of Colne pleaded guilty at Reedley Magistrates’ Court to four charges resulting from the two incidents.
HSE work equipment and risk assessment webpages • Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Firm fined £5,000 for tree felling injury
A Sutton Coldfield engineering company has been fined £5,000 after a man suffered serious head injuries while he was helping to remove a branch from a tree. Pro-Mil Engineering Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £3,314 at Nuneaton Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to a safety offence.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Firms fined for fatal cradle plunge
Two firms involved in a workplace tragedy in Sheffield which killed one man and injured three others have been fined a total of £140,000. The incident happened when an access cradle suspended from the exterior of a Sheffield office building partially collapsed in July 2003.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: Grieving family want manslaughter charges
The family of a GMB member killed by a mechanical digger when depositing grass cuttings at a Newbury recycling centre have said the firm responsible should face manslaughter charges. In a statement, widow Linda Krauesslar and her daughter Victoria called on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to prosecute Biffa for manslaughter over the death of Dennis Krauesslar, 59.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

Britain: ‘Disgraceful’ CPS failure on Lloyd killing
Journalists’ union NUJ has said it is appalled by a decision from the Crown Prosecution Service not to proceed with a prosecution over the shooting of ITN journalist Terry Lloyd in Iraq in 2003. A 2006 inquest into Terry’s death found that he was killed by a bullet to the head from an M63 machine gun fired by US Marines.
Risks 367
Hazards news, 2 August 2008

USA: Secret Bush rule to protect toxins
The Bush administration has been caught trying to introduce secretly an eleventh-hour rule that would make it harder to set new safety standards limiting workers’ exposure to chemicals. The Labor Department has refused to discuss or disclose the proposal, which has spurred anger and condemnation from unions, Democrats in Congress and public health scientists.
Washington Post and related earlier coverage • AFL-CIO Now • Requirements for DOL Agencies' Assessment of Occupational Health Risks. Action: Proposed Rulemaking. Department of Labor, RI 1290-AA23 [pdf] • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Australia: Deadly work demands strong laws
Australia’s poor record on workplace death and injury underlines the need for the highest possible national workplace health and safety standards, the country’s national union federation has said. ACTU assistant secretary Geoff Fary was speaking after a national meeting of unions resolved to push strongly for new national laws that impose a duty of care on all employers and give unions the capacity to initiate prosecutions over breaches of workplace safety law.
Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: Safety offences bill moves a step closer
The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill successfully completed its Committee Stage in the House of Lords on 18 July. The Bill, put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill, cleared the Commons in June after being given an unopposed third reading; the next stage of the process, Report and Third Reading in the House of Lords, is now expected to take place on 7 October.
Health and Safety (Offences) Bill • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: Chemical firm’s small fine over dust blast
A chemical company in Wales has been fined £12,000 following an “entirely foreseeable and avoidable” April 2006 dust explosion and fire. Warwick International Group Ltd has since changed procedures and spent £1.3 million in rebuilding the part of its Mostyn factory destroyed in the blaze.
Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

Britain: HSE loses deaths information case
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was wrong to withhold the names of people killed at work, the Information Commissioner has ruled. A decision by the Information Commissioner’s Office requires the HSE to provide the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) with the names of those who have died in work-related deaths once the opening of the coroner’s inquest has taken place.
CCA news release and deaths, inquests and prosecutions database
ICO news release [pdf] • Decision notice, ICO reference FS50104541, 21 July 2008 [pdf] • Risks 366
Hazards news, 26 July 2008

South Africa: Union plans safety strike at Gold Fields
South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has said it is planning industrial action at Gold Fields’ four mining operations, in protest at its worsening safety record. Gold Fields is responsible for about a quarter of South Africa's 85 mine fatalities this year.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Australia: Bust up beckons on safety law
Big business in Australia is set for a bust up with unions over occupational health and safety laws, with the Australian Industry Group calling for a shake-up of standards and enforcement regimes. Australia’s safety regulation is currently set at state level, with safety rights for workers and unions and safety duties on employers varying markedly between states.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Firm fined £10,000 for trainee’s fall
A housing organisation has been fined £10,000 after a trainee council plumber fell 3 metres through a skylight onto some stairs. The Haringey Council employee, who was working for arms-length agency Homes for Haringey Ltd, was changing a water tank at a flat on 18 January 2007 when he fell through the skylight, which was covered by loft insulation material, and injured his spine.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Polish worker died in fireball
A Polish worker who died after a blast at a Sheffield metals factory was not wearing protective clothing that could have saved his life and had not received proper training. Patrycjusz Handzel, aged 24, suffered 80 per cent burns in the explosion at Transition International on 17 March last year.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Widow’s anger at crane ‘accident’ verdict
The widow of a Polish construction worker crushed to death on a Liverpool building site has expressed her anger at an inquest’s accident verdict. Father-of-two Zbigniew Roman Swirzynski was struck by a 2.4-ton concrete counterweight which fell from the crane on 15 January last year.
FACK/BCDAG news release • Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: Bus bosses jailed for death cover-up
Two bus firm directors who lied about the hours their drivers worked following a crash in which a 27-year-old worker died have been jailed. Managing director Vincenzo Casale, 44, and his transport manager David Ellis, 37, both directors of UK North and GM Buses Enterprises, were each jailed for 15 months and were banned from being company directors for ten and five years respectively.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: HSE relocation risks health and safety
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) administrative staff began a campaign of industrial action on 7 July to protest at plans to move hundreds of staff out of London. The union PCS said so far only 10 out of more than 300 staff had expressed an interest in relocating to HSE’s new Bootle HQ.
Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Britain: ‘Lax’ offshore safety enforcement warning
An offshore union has warned that the industry still does not pay enough attention to safety, two decades after the Piper Alpha disaster took the lives of 167 workers. RMT said safety enforcement is lax, and the number of safety inspectors has fallen by almost 40 per cent since 1994; it added that despite “significant” safety measures introduced after the 6 July 1988 tragedy, workers are still under threat of being told they are ‘Not Required Back’ (NRB) if they raise safety issues.
Commons debate, 2 July 2008 • Press and Journal and follow up article on the industry response • Risks 364
Hazards news, 12 July 2008

Global: Olympic movement from sports goods firms
A month before the start of the Beijing Olympics, key sporting goods brands including Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Umbro and Speedo have formed a groundbreaking joint working group with trade unions and campaign groups.
Play Fair 2008 • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: ‘Shocking’ failures led to fatal petrol burns
A Twickenham garage has been fined £20,000 after pleading guilty to safety breaches that led to the death of employee Biagio Malacaria. Alexanders of Twickenham Ltd, a car MOT, service and repair business, was also ordered at City of London Magistrates Court last week to pay costs of £16,905.
Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Small dip in work deaths
There has been a small dip in the number of people killed at work this year, but the workplace death rate has remained significantly higher than record low recorded in 2005/06. The figures show the general fatality rate for employees, the self-employed and all workers has remained broadly the same over the last five years.
HSE statistics webpages • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Oil firms accused of putting production first
Offshore oil operators have been accused of deliberately delaying maintenance operations to produce as much oil as possible to exploit sky-high world prices. The claim by Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce came in a Commons debate on the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster, in which 167 workers perished.
KP3 report [pdf] • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Why did rail firm ignore deadly hoist warning?
Rail union RMT is demanded the withdrawal from use of ‘Unimog’ hydraulic hoists after an incident in Essex left three workers injured, one subsequently succumbing to his injuries. RMT had earlier raised concerns about the safety of the hoists.
Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Government blasted on crane register refusal
Safety campaigners have reacted angrily to a government refusal to introduce a central register of cranes. Construction union UCATT said “the reasoning that the register is not feasible because the cranes are mobile is spurious.”
BCDAG news release • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

Britain: Unions slam ‘complacent’ government
The government’s response to a highly critical Commons select committee report on the work of the Health and Safety Executive has been described as “complacent” and “disappointing” by unions. The 21 April committee report warned that lack of funding was undermining HSE and called for more cash, more front line inspectors, more inspections and more prosecutions, but the government response said improvements would be achieved by HSE “prioritising and targeting its activities” and indicated it would persevere with the existing HSE policy.
Work and pensions committee news release and full government response • Risks 363
Hazards news, 5 July 2008

USA: Watchdog complicit as firms bury victims
The US system for measuring workplace safety is flawed and misses up to half of all workplace injuries, according to a report presented at a hearing on OSHA, the federal agency charged with protecting workers' safety and health. “Without accurate injury and illness statistics, employers and workers are unable to identify and address safety and health hazards, and policy makers are unable to assess the state of workplace safety in this country,” said George Miller, chair of the House Education and Labor Committee.
House Education and Labor Committee news release and report [pdf] • Wall Street Journal • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Philippines: Union says deadly shipyard must close
A Philippines shipyard with a horrendous safety record should close, a union has said. Instead of bringing economic development to the Central Luzon area, the shipbuilding facility in Subic Bay operated by Hanjin Heavy Industries Cooperation Philippines (HHIC) has become a “graveyard” for workers, construction union NUBCW said.
BWI news release • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Bangladesh: Zara forces Dhaka factory closure
Fashion firm Zara has forced the closure of a supplier's factory in Bangladesh after workers reported harsh treatment, including physical and verbal abuse. The supplier has agreed to close the factory, redeploy its workers, and recognise trade unions at its other factories.
BBC News Online • Global Business – listen to the latest programme • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Fruit packer fined over work injury
A Sittingbourne company has been fined £3,000 after its failure to train workers and assess work risks led to a worker sustaining serious injuries. Fruit packing company Cross and Wells Ltd was also ordered to pay full costs of £3,422 at Sittingbourne Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to safety offences.
HSE news release • Packaging News • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Construction giant fined over driver’s death
A construction company has been fined £120,000 after a worker fell to his death at one of its yards. Lorry driver Nigel Sargeant, 45, plunged 15ft (4.6m) to the ground at Calders and Grandidge Limited in Boston, part of the global Saint-Gobain group, as he was trying to reduce the height of his trailer-load of steel poles.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Britain: Scaffold boss jailed for ignored HSE notice
A Rotherham scaffold boss has been jailed for three months after a worker was seriously injured just months after the firm received a formal Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stop-the-job notice for the same safety failings. Philip Wolstenholme, the boss of A1 Access Scaffolding, was charged after one of his workers fell six metres on 12 January 2007.
HSE news release • Building • Risks 362
Hazards news, 28 June 2008

Korea: Shipyard deaths linked to deregulation
A spate of deaths in South Korea’s highly profitable shipyards has been linked to the government’s deregulation of health and safety in the sector. The Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) reports that 15 shipbuilding workers have lost their lives at work in the last year.
IMF news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Jail for asbestos dumpers
Two men have been jailed for a £1.2 million flytipping scam which saw thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste including asbestos dumped at bogus construction sites emblazoned with mock health and safety notices. James Kelleher, from Dagenham and Patrick Anderson, from the Irish Republic, were accused of dumping over 14,600 tonnes of waste – the equivalent of 750 lorry loads - at 15 sites in London and Essex.
Environment Agency news release • BBC News Online • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Weetabix worker loses fingertips
Cereal manufacturer Weetabix has been fined £3,500 after a worker lost his fingertips in a workplace machine. HSE inspector Peter Snelgrove said the injury could have been avoided if the company had obeyed the law.
HSE news release • Risks 361

Britain: Chemical burns blast firm pays twice
A worker who suffered serious burns after an explosion at a Brighouse chemical container site has been awarded £15,000 compensation. Mohammed Ahmed Ali suffered 15 per cent burns to his forearms, thighs, genitals and lower abdomen when a chemical container he was working on at Pack2Pack exploded in March last year.
Brighouse Echo • Halifax Evening Courier • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Fall leads to £15,000 fine
A Darlington building firm has been fined £15,000 following an incident in which one of its workers was seriously injured in a workplace fall. Bussey and Armstrong Ltd pleaded guilty to a safety offence and was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs of £3,193 at Darlington Magistrates’ Court.
HSE news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Government told to fund site safety or fail
The government needs to provide adequate safety training and an increase in Health and Safety Executive inspectors if its new strategy for the construction industry is to succeed, a top safety organisation has said. Safety professionals’ organisation the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) said for the government strategy to succeed there must be “an eventual doubling” in the number of frontline inspectors.
IOSH news release • BERR Strategy for Sustain Construction webpage • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: HSE dismay as most sites fail safety test
Thirteen out of 15 Merseyside construction sites visited in a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspection blitz were issued with enforcement notices for breaches of safety law. A February blitz of over 1,000 sites saw over 300 sites shut down for serious safety breaches.
HSE news release • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: Safety Bill moves to the Lords
The House of Lords is to look at tougher penalties for those who breach health and safety laws after proposals were passed by MPs. The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill cleared the Commons after being given an unopposed third reading.
IOSH news • Health and Safety (Offences) Bill • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Britain: It’s worse than murder at work
At least twice as many people die from fatal injuries at work than are victims of homicide, a new report has revealed. Academics Professor Steve Tombs and Dr Dave Whyte found that at least 1,300 people died as a result of fatal occupational injuries in 2005-06 in England and Wales, compared with 765 homicide deaths.
Centre for Crime and Justice Studies news release • A crisis of enforcement: the decriminalisation of death and injury at work, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 17 June 2008 • Response to the report from HSE chief executive Geoffrey Podger • Risks 361
Hazards news, 21 June 2008

Global: Union dismay at more journalist deaths
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) says the deaths last week of journalists in Afghanistan and Somalia, both of whom worked for the BBC, underscores the need for comprehensive international action to confront the global crisis of violence against independent reporters.
IFJ news release • NUJ news release • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Five grand fine for near fatal fall
A worker was nearly killed when he tried to fix a ceiling unit and fell from a ladder, a court heard. Wellingborough firm Spray-Craft Coating Limited was fined £5,000 after the unnamed employee fell more than two metres from the top of a spray booth, resulting in several fractures and bleeding to his brain.
HSE news release • Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Five metre fall ends in fine
A five-metre fall that left Rhondda carpenter David Morgan with serious injuries that may well have ended his career has resulted in a fine for his employer. Loft conversion company Allied Welsh Ltd pleaded guilty at Bridgend Magistrates’ Court last month to a safety breach and was subsequently fined £25,000 at Cardiff Crown Court and ordered to pay costs of £8,600.
HSE news release and Shattered lives web resource • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Firework boss charged over deaths
A firework depot owner and his son have been charged with manslaughter over the deaths of two firefighters. Martin Winter, 50, and Nathan Winter, 23, have been bailed to appear at Lewes Magistrates' Court on 18 June; the company, now known as Alpha Fireworks Ltd, has been summonsed for breaches of explosives regulations.
The Telegraph • BBC News Online • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Convicted fatality firm fined £2
A company convicted of workplace safety crimes after a fatal gas blast sent a fireball through its premises has been fined just £2. Factory worker Christopher Knoop, 50, was killed and three others were seriously hurt when liquified petroleum gas exploded at North West Aerosols Ltd in Aintree in 2005.
FACK news release and website • HSE news release • Daily Mirror • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Tony’s death was no accident
The family of a Hartlepool council labourer who was struck down by a car as he put up signs has criticised the inquest process following a verdict of accidental death. Hartlepool Borough Council worker Tony Gate remained in a coma for nearly three years after being struck by a car in July 2003.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Northern Echo • Risks 360
Hazards news, 14 June 2008

Britain: Freight firm fined for lorry driver death
A transport firm has been fined £22,000 after a lorry driver was killed. Martyn Simm, 45, was killed in March 2006 when a defective sliding metal gate weighing 0.4 tonnes fell onto him as he was closing it, at Berser International Cargo Services Ltd’s site in Chesterton.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Six figure fine for mechanic’s death
A Staffordshire vehicle maker has been fined £166,000 for health and safety violations after a 39-year-old mechanic was crushed to death. Simon Rose, a field engineer at Dennis Eagle Limited, was trying to cure a brake fault on a bin wagon at a council depot, Stafford Crown Court heard.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Fined transport firm loses its appeal
A transport firm fined for safety failings that led to a worker being seriously injured has lost its appeal against the penalty. Harris Transport Ltd failed in its 2 June bid at Southampton Crown Court to overturn the £28,000 fine imposed in January 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Fined transport firm loses its appeal
A transport firm fined for safety failings that led to a worker being seriously injured has lost its appeal against the penalty. Harris Transport Ltd failed in its 2 June bid at Southampton Crown Court to overturn the £28,000 fine imposed in January 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Bus firm failed to learn deadly lesson
A bus firm that missed “blindingly obvious risks” even after experiencing a workplace fatality has been fined £60,000. The London Central Bus Company Limited was prosecuted following an incident in which employee Omar Maouche fell into a pit and suffered spinal injuries, just over a year after another employee died in similar circumstances.
HSE news release • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Britain: Dismay at ICL inquiry means testing
The families of those killed in the May 2004 ICL/Stockline disaster in Glasgow have voiced concern over plans to means test those wishing to have legal representation during the forthcoming public inquiry.
STUC news release • ICL/Stockline independent report and campaign website • Risks 359
Hazards news, 7 June 2008

Iran: Chemical plant fire kills 30
At least 30 people have been killed and 38 injured, many of them suffering severe burns, in a fire in a chemical plant in central Iran on Sunday 25 May, the state news agency IRNA has said. The fire in the cosmetics and detergent-producing plant near the town of Shazand is reported to have been caused by a blast during welding work.
ABC News • BBC News Online • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Europe: Campaign challenges corporate abuses
Victims of human rights and environmental abuses by European companies around the world could find justice in European courts under proposals unveiled this week at an international conference at the European Parliament. The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) revealed policy proposals developed by a team of legal experts which if adopted by the European Union would guarantee the legal responsibility of companies based in Europe, and their directors, for human rights or environmental violations committed by their subsidiaries or subcontractors anywhere in the world.
ECCJ news release, including links to the full report, Fair law: Legal proposals to improve corporate accountability for environmental and human rights abuses, ECCJ report, 29 May 2008, executive summary [pdf] • Smart regulation: Legislative opportunities for the EU to improve corporate accountability, ECCJ conference, 29 May 2008 • European Coalition for Corporate Justice • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Global: Pursuing the corporate killers
The trades union-backed health and safety magazine Hazards is stepping up the pressure on deadly bosses with the launch of new ‘deadly business’ web resources. Hazards magazine’s Jawad Qasrawi said: “The Hazards ‘Deadly business’ online resource provides tools, information and news to help trades unions and campaigners build the pressure on killer bosses.”
Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Experts slam corporate manslaughter law
Legal experts have warned the new corporate manslaughter law is not tough enough because it fails to hold individual directors accountable for deadly mistakes. No director or senior manager of a large of medium-sized UK firm has ever been jailed for workplace manslaughter.
Contract Journal • Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Worker dies after being buried in waste
A worker died after being buried in rubbish at a waste dump, a court has heard. White Reclamation Ltd was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000 at Manchester Crown Court, after pleading guilty to workplace safety offences.
HSE news release • Hazards magazine deadly business webpages • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Meat firm chops off fingers
A multinational meat processing firm where a worker had the tops of three fingers sliced off, another received a serious electric shock and employees and contractors were using dangerous walkways 60 feet above the factory floor has been fined £265,000 and ordered to pay £21,653 in costs. Michael Warnes was changing a mould on a packaging machine at the Tulip factory in Thetford in October 2005, when machine parts moved.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Firm fined for four flattened fingers
An engineering firm has been fined £7,000 after an employee had his fingers crushed in an unguarded 60 ton power press. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought the case following its investigation into the incident on 25 June 2007 at Metal Products (Arden) Ltd's site in Burntwood.
HSE news release • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: Beehive firm doesn’t cut it on wood dust
A Lincolnshire firm making beehives has been fined after a worker was injured by a cutting machine and colleagues were exposed to potentially harmful Western Red Cedar wood dust. Company managers had attended a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) woodworking safety and health awareness day only seven months earlier, but have now been criticised by HSE for not acting on what they learned.
HSE news release • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

Britain: HSE is still facing staff crisis
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announcement that it is to recruit 40 new inspectors will still leave the safety watchdog too stretched to properly do its job, critics have warned. After a spate of construction deaths in New York, the city – which is similar in size to London – has just announced it is to hire 63 more inspectors to enforce safety rules at construction sites.
PCS campaign • IOSH news release • CIEH news • New York Times • Risks 358
Hazards news, 31 May 2008

USA: Court dismisses industry’s unsafe assumption
A well-resourced attempt by industry lobby groups has failed in a legal bid to keep under wraps a listing of non-statutory, non-binding chemical exposure limits. In a summary judgment, a federal judge in the United States District Court in Macon, Georgia dismissed the last of four counts in a lawsuit against the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH).
ACGIH news release • The Pump Handle • DefendingScience.org • Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Britain: Tesco fined £25,000 for lift injury
Supermarket giant Tesco have been fined a total of £25,000 after a faulty lift in a Sheffield store knocked an employee unconscious. The incident happened when the hydraulic arm of a scissor lift struck the employee on the head - four days after it had been reported as defective by a council safety inspector.
Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Britain: Bad move could lose key HSE staff
A cost-cutting move to shift the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) HQ from London to Bootle is causing a recruitment and retention crisis for the beleaguered safety watchdog. A news report from the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) notes: “For a body that is struggling to keep its staff and to recruit new ones, the Health and Safety Executive’s move from London to Bootle could not have come at a worse time.”
CIEH news • Risks 357
Hazards news, 24 May 2008

Global: Exposing Grupo Mexico’s worker abuses
When multinational firms behave badly, putting the lives and livelihoods of their workers at risk, they usually do this unseen by outside eyes. Not any more. Unions are harnessing the internet to expose wrongdoing and as a focus for campaign action.
USW news release • The record speaks for itself website • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fourth ‘unacceptable’ EDF death
The union GMB has criticised energy multinational EDF after the fourth death of an employee in a year. EDF Energy maintenance worker John Higgins, 59, died from the effects of burns and inhalation of toxic gases at an EDF sub station in Chelmsford on 7 May.
GMB news release • BBC News Online • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

USA: Put death mine bosses in the dock
The mine manager and other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon coal mine in Utah hid information from US federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, a congressional committee said. Last August, six miners and three rescue workers died after the mine collapsed.
AFL-CIO Now blog and YouTube coverage of the committee findings • UMWA news release • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Welsh firm canned on machine safety
A firm making cans has had to cough up compensation after a worker seriously injured his thumb. Unite member Gerald O’Reilly, 58, a machine operator at Impress Merthyr Tydfil Limited, secured £11,000 damages with the help of the union.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: HSE's ‘shocking’ failure costs lives
There is growing concern that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is failing at its job. HSE has reduced the number of its inspectors by around 25 per cent in five years from 916 to 680; firms on average face an HSE inspection just once every 14½ years; and meanwhile the number of policy officers the HSE employs has more than doubled from 38 to 87.
The Observer and related article • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fumes death boss is fined but free
A company boss has been cleared of the manslaughter of a worker who died after inhaling poisonous fumes – but was fined £17,500 for a health and safety breaches. John Beckett, 44, was accused over the death of “right hand man” Dean Cox; the 21-year-old was found slumped over a vat of chemicals used to strip alloy wheels at Wolverhampton firm A1.
Express and Star and related story • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Fines not jail time for guilty managers
A court has fined two contractors and two individuals after a German worker died at a depot in Worksop, Nottinghamshire – but a manager was found not guilty of manslaughter. Hans Zdolsek fell 8.5m while he was working at the Wilkinsons distribution centre in February 2004.
Building • Contract Journal • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Tribute to Stockline blast victims
The fourth anniversary of the ICL Stockline disaster was marked on 11 May at the memorial garden outside the factory where nine people died in one of Scotland's worst industrial tragedies. Families of the victims were joined by the local community as more than 100 people turned up at a short ceremony at the site in Maryhill, Glasgow.
Glasgow Evening Times • The Herald • ICL Stockline disaster website • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Rail firms fined after worker loses leg
Three rail companies have each been fined £200,000 after a worker was electrocuted, suffering horrific injuries. Richard McBride was one of three men working on an overhead electric line at Marston Green during modernisation work to the West Coast Main Line route in July 2003.
ORR news release • Birmingham Post • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

Britain: Building firm fined £10k for employee fall
A Sunderland building firm has been fined £10,000 after one of its workers was injured falling 2.8m from rafters onto a concrete floor. South Tyneside Magistrates' Court fined Murray Construction and Development Ltd £10,000 after the company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
HSE news release • Contract Journal • Building • Risks 356
Hazards news, 17 May 2008

USA: Dust law pending – but deaths came first
US legislators have taken the first steps towards a law to protect workers from dust explosions. The measure, though, comes after decades of inaction, hundreds of factory explosions and a shocking death toll.
The Pump Handle • US House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, YouTube video of the debate and US combustible dust inaction timeline • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

Britain: Roofing boss jailed for teen's death
Roofing firm boss Roy Clarke has been jailed for 10 months for the manslaughter of a teenage apprentice who plunged to his death in his first week at work. Daniel Dennis, 17, who had no safety training, died when he fell through an unguarded skylight in April 2003.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • HSE news release • Western Mail • BBC News Online • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

South Africa: The deadly price of gold
A spate of deaths in South African mines operated by Gold Fields Ltd have highlighted the industry’s continuing failure to address its appalling fatality rate. At least 14 miners have been killed at the company’s mines in the last two weeks, including nine on 1 May at South Deep Mine near Randfontein.
ICEM news release • The Times • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

Britain: Death firm bosses evade justice
Bosses of a factory where a man was killed in an explosion have failed to appear at related court hearings, will not face any personal penalties and their firm may end up with only a token fine which the judge thinks might not be paid. The case, which could add weight to union arguments for explicit safety responsibilities on directors, involves the workplace death of Christopher Knoop.
Liverpool Daily Post • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

USA: Democrats want tougher safety penalties
People can get more prison time for mail fraud than for violating safety standards that can kill workers, Democratic senators said as they called for tougher punishment for workplace fatalities and stricter enforcement from the federal safety watchdog OSHA.
Kennedy report on OSHA [pdf] • St Louis Post-Dispatch • Las Vegas Sun • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

Britain: HSE pleads for industry leadership
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chair Judith Hackitt has again called for top managers to take safety seriously. At an HSE ‘Leading from the top - avoiding major incidents’ event attended by 200 ‘industry leaders’ from major hazards industries, Ms Hackitt said the initiative was an opportunity to share good practice and to learn from incidents such as those at Texas City, Buncefield and the Thorp plant in Sellafield.
HSE news release • HSE leadership principles • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

Britain: Everest fined over work at heights
A home improvement company has been fined £6,000 after pleading guilty to breaching the work at heights regulations. Everest Ltd was prosecuted at Luton Magistrates’ Court after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found workers were repeatedly exposed to the risk of falling from height.
HSE news release • Risks 355
Hazards news, 10 May 2008

USA: Latinos worst affected by deaths hike
Workplace fatalities have increased sharply for Latino and immigrant workers in the US, according to a shocking new report. The new edition of ‘Death on the job: The toll of neglect’, published by the US national union federation AFL-CIO, reports that 2006 fatal injuries among Latino workers increased by seven per cent, with 990 fatalities.
AFL-CIO news release • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Morocco: Murder charge call after fire deaths
Moroccan police have arrested the owner and manager of a Casablanca mattress factory engulfed by a fire that killed at least 55 people. The global union federation for the garment sector, ITGLWF, had earlier called for murder charges to be brought against those responsible.
ITGLWF news release • ITUC news release • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Another six figure death fine for Corus
An incident that saw a Corus worker crushed to death has cost the company £200,000 in fines and costs – the second time it had received a six figure fine related to a fatality in less than three months. It was also fined £125,000 in August last year after a worker suffered horrific, near fatal burns at its Scunthorpe plant.
HSE news release • More on recent Corus deaths and prosecutions • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Dead teen’s family calls for maximum sentence
Lawyers acting for the family of Daniel Dennis, killed aged 17 after falling through a skylight, have called for company boss Roy Clarke to be given the maximum sentence available to the court. Clarke, the owner of North Eastern Roofing, admitted manslaughter in March after the family’s five year campaign for justice.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Boards must gave safety priority
Companies have been told they have to take safety seriously at board level, or there could be consequences. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) chair Judith Hackitt reminded board members and senior business directors to put effective health and safety performance high on their agendas.
HSE news release, leadership conference news release and leadership webpages • Judith Hackitt podcast • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Safety’s not first for many bosses
Many employers put other business concerns ahead of worker safety, a major employee survey has found. When asked to rank their boss’s business priorities, 31 per cent felt that keeping customers and clients happy was their boss’s top concern.
IOSH news release • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Dog attack man gets nine months
A dangerous dog owner has been jailed after his two dogs savaged a Sheffield postal worker. Post union CWU has welcomed the nine month jail term handed down to Jamal Richards at Sheffield Crown Court, following the savage mauling of postie Paul Coleman.
CWU news release • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Protest at HSE’s bad move
Unions in the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have warned its planned HQ move from London to Bootle will lead to a haemorrhage of experienced staff. Over 100 PCS members working at HSE’s London HQ joined Workers’ Memorial Day protesters outside the building.
PCS news release • Contract Journal • Risks 354
Hazards news, 3 May 2008

Britain: Family critical after man's death
The family of a man who died after a sugar factory explosion has said he would still be alive if more “care and attention” had been paid to equipment. Robert Howe, 52, was showered with hot coals when a boiler exploded at British Sugar’s Allscott factory.
Shropshire Star • BBC News Online • Risks 353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008

Britain: Not much naming, less shaming
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) commitment to name and shame dangerous firms is failing because of the watchdog’s “simply extraordinary” failure to publicise most convictions. A Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) analysis found in 2007 HSE issued news releases after only 33 per cent of safety convictions, just 167 cases out of 502; of the 84 convictions that involved a death, HSE only issued a news release following 45 cases, or 54 per cent of the total.
CCA news release • Risks 353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008

Britain: Action call on ‘toothless’ HSE
Unions have said the government must respond positively to the House of Commons work and pensions committee’s call for an increase in Health and Safety Executive (HSE) funding and enforcement activity. Bud Hudspith, Unite’s national health and safety officer, said: “A toothless Health and Safety Executive has been starved of resources and the power to penalise those who disregard the safety of workers and the public.”
Unite news release • UCATT news release • UNISON on the report and directors’ duties • Risks 353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008

Britain: Ministers urged to heed report findings
The TUC and the unions representing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) staff have urged the government to act on the recommendations of the House of Commons select committee on work and pensions.
TUC news release • Prospect news release • PCS news release • Risks 353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008

Britain: MPs warn safety is under-funded
There is “widespread concern that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is inadequately funded,” undermining its ability to carry out its work, MPs have warned ministers. The Commons Work and Pensions Committee report called for more “front line” health and safety inspectors, more frequent site visits, bigger fines and more prosecutions, all measures running counter to HSE’s practice over recent years.
The role of the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive in regulating workplace health and safety, House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee, 21 April 2008 • Risks 353
Hazards news, 26 April 2008

Canada: Resign call over ‘death’ rebates
A Canadian union body has called for a compensation board’s executives to resign after it was discovered some companies were receiving cash rebates for “good” safety performance when another arm of government had prosecuted them for safety offences involving workplace deaths. The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and other groups say Steve Mahoney should be fired from his post as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in the province.
NUPGE news release • Risks 352
Hazards news, 19 April 2008

Britain: Six figure penalty after sub-contractor dies
Edeco Petroleum Services has been fined £200,000 after a sub-contractor was asphyxiated on a drilling job. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £47,400 at Hull Crown Court on charges relating to the death of Neil Millar, a 36-year-old sub-contractor.
Hull Daily Mail • Risks 352
Hazards news, 19 April 2008

Britain: Council fined over gardener's death
York Council has been fined £20,000 after the “entirely avoidable” death of gardener Frank Smith, 54, who crushed by a mower on an embankment. The council, which had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, was also ordered to pay £20,425 in prosecution costs, including the £9,332 cost of a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation.
Yorkshire Post • Risks 352
Hazards news, 19 April 2008

Britain: Jail terms needed to deter work killers
There must be a root and branch review of health and safety on construction sites to tackle the persistently high death rate, construction union UCATT has said. The union warning came after provisional Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures revealed 69 construction workers were killed at work in 2007/8.
UCATT news release • HSE news release and fatality statistics • Risks 352
Hazards news, 19 April 2008

Britain: TUC looks for manslaughter action
The TUC has said the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act is a step in the right direction, but would have been more effective if it had provisions to see dangerous directors in the dock.
Ministry of Justice news release • TUC news release • Risks 351
Hazards news, 12 April 2008

Britain: Campaign wins manslaughter admission
The owner of a roofing company has admitted manslaughter following the death of a 17-year-old employee who fell through a store skylight. On the eve of a trial at Cardiff Crown Court, Roy Clark admitted the charge relating to the death of Daniel Dennis in April 2003.
South Wales Echo • BBC News Online • Risks 351
Hazards news, 12 April 2008

USA: Unions urge action on serial offenders
US unions have called on politicians to take urgent action to ensure greater safety oversight of companies with a history of serious safety violations. Eric Frumin, health and safety coordinator for the Change to Win partnership, told the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety earlier this month: “Employers bear the primary responsibility for protecting workers, but too often, companies would rather squeeze out extra profit than save employees' lives.” Teamsters news release and In harm’s way report • Change to Win news release • Risks 351
Hazards news, 12 April 2008

Britain: Aga fined for work injury
Luxury cooker manufacturer Aga has been fined £25,000 after an employee lost a thumb in an incident at its Coalbrookdale foundry. Anthony Bridgewater had been checking to see whether sand had clogged machinery when his hand hit a rotating blade, amputating his thumb and breaking his finger.
Shropshire Star • Risks 350
Hazards news, 5 April 2008

Britain: What difference will the killing law make?
The new corporate killing law, effective from 6 April, has received a mixed welcome, with some staying it will lead to greater corporate accountability and others suggesting while there may be some large firms facing charges it lets negligent bosses off the hook. Prosecutors will no longer have to prove that an individual acted as a ‘directing mind’ and was responsible for a death - they can charge a company instead.
Financial Times • BBC News Online • HSE and Ministry of Justice corporate manslaughter law webpages • TUC corporate accountability webpages • FACK • Risks 350
Hazards news, 5 April 2008

USA: Site workers rushed to an early grave
In the shadows of the cranes, steel and concrete upon which Las Vegas has pinned its addiction to growth, a body count has emerged. Nine construction workers have died in eight accidents since the end of 2006 at the towers that are redefining the Las Vegas skyline - workers describe construction sites that are crowded with equipment and people, combined with consistent - though often unstated - pressure to do everything at top speed, and nervously refer to the CityCenter site as “CityCemetery” or “CemeteryCenter.”
Las Vegas Sun and follow up article on the official enforcement failure • The Pump Handle • Risks 350
Hazards news, 5 April 2008

Britain: HSE absorbs HSC
The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) merged on 1 April. The new combined body will be called the Health and Safety Executive.
DWP news release • HSE merger statement • Risks 350
Hazards news, 5 April 2008

Britain: New regulating rules for safety watchdogs
Revised standards for health and safety enforcers have been released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in response to a new government code covering official regulatory activity. The Regulators’ Compliance Code, which from 6 April applies to all regulatory agencies including HSE and local authority workplace safety inspectors, “is a statutory code of practice intended to encourage regulators to achieve their objectives in a way that minimises the burdens on business,” says HSE in an online briefing.
HSE short guide on its role and the Regulators’ Compliance Code • Usdaw news release • Local authority enforced sectors • Risks 350
Hazards news, 5 April 2008

China: Nine jailed for coal mine deaths
Nine coal mine bosses have been sentenced to between two and six years in jail for a 2005 blast that killed 108 miners and injured 29 others in north China's Hebei Province. The gas blast was caused by the illegal operation of the mine, Li Yizhong, former director of the State Administration of Work Safety, had said.
China Daily • Risks 349
Hazards news, 29 March 2008

Britain: Dairy fined for finger-severing incident
A dairy firm has been fined £12,000 after a worker had parts of her fingers cut off at a Worcestershire factory. The incident happened in April 2006 at Robert Wiseman Dairies’ Droitwich plant.
Worcester News • BBC News Online • Risks 349
Hazards news, 29 March 2008

Britain: Waste firm fined for horrific injuries
A waste company has been fined £10,000 after a worker suffered serious injuries when he was run over by a workplace vehicle. FOCSA Services (UK) Ltd was also ordered to pay costs of £4,277 at Calderdale Magistrates' Court, after pleading guilty to a breach of safety law.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • Huddersfield Daily Examiner • Risks 349
Hazards news, 29 March 2008

Britain: Firm fined over two electrocution deaths
Maintenance firm Colas has been fined £90,000 six years after a safety breach that cost two workers their lives. Fred Cook, 38, and colleague John Crimmins, 33, were electrocuted when the mobile tower light they were pushing came into contact with a high voltage power line.
HSE news release • Newcastle Chronicle • Risks 349
Hazards news, 29 March 2008

Britain: Taylor Wimpey fined after teen site death
Construction giant Taylor Wimpey Developments Ltd has been fined £50,000 after Grant Meyrick, 18, a self-employed bricklayer and ‘modern apprentice’ attending Stoke-on-Trent College, was killed. The firm was also ordered to pay costs of £25,000 at Stoke Crown Court.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • Contract Journal. Building • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Firm pays £3,000 after worker loses leg
A North Yorkshire firm has been fined £3,000 for safety offences that cost a worker his leg. The incident occurred at the Pauls Malt factory in Malton in August 2007, when process operator Paul Sellers fell through a machine guard, catching his leg in a rotating screw conveyor.
HSE news release • Scarborough Evening News • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Shell hit with fine after ‘lucky’ escape
Oil giant Shell has been fined £266,681 for allowing toxic fluid and gas to leak from a pipe at one of its refineries in what the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) described as a ‘narrow escape’ which could have led to a major explosion. Twenty tonnes of the mixture escaped from the corroded pipe at the Stanlow petrochemical plant in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, in 2003.
HSE news release • Ellesmere Port Pioneer • The Mirror • International Herald Tribune • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: JCB fined for two preventable deaths
Two companies forming part of the site plant manufacturer JCB have been fined after two employees, Darren Ellis and Paul McNamara, died in separate incidents while undertaking routine tasks. HSE brought the cases against JCB Earthmovers Ltd and JC Bamford Excavators Ltd before Stafford Crown Court.
HSE news release • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Site giant Alfred McAlpine fined £250,000
Road builder Alfred McAlpine Capital Projects Ltd has been fined £250,000 following the death of a motorcyclist at a roadworks site. The firm, which had entered a guilty plea at an earlier hearing, was also ordered to pay £5,859 in costs.
HSE news release • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Bus firm fined after worker crushed
Bus company First Capital East Limited (First) has been fined following the death of an employee when he was run over and crushed at a bus depot. First was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay costs of £95,000 at Croydon Crown Court, after pleading guilty to safety breaches.
HSE news release • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Death fines below 0.2 per cent of turnover
Most large companies convicted of safety offences involving a workplace death are fined at less than a 700th of their annual turnover, a new study has found. If individuals earning an average annual income of £24,769 were sentenced at this level, they would be fined just £35.
CCA news release, including link to the full report, The relationship between the levels of fines imposed upon companies convicted of health and safety offences resulting from deaths, and the turnover and gross profits of these companies, CCA, March 2008 • Risks 348
Hazards news, 22 March 2008

Britain: Molten zinc burns lead to fine
Hereford Galvanizers Ltd was fined £13,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,564 after pleading guilty at Hereford Magistrates Court to safety offences. The prosecution followed a June 2006 incident where an employee helping with galvanising operations was splashed with 450-degree molten zinc when the hooks suspending two steel joists, each weighing approximately 1,165kg (over 1 tonne), gave way causing the joists to plunge back into the dip bath.
HSE news release • Risks 347
Hazards news, 15 March 2008

Britain: Suspend the board after work deaths
Sanctions including far-reaching improvement orders, substantial fines, court-ordered publicity and in the worst of cases, suspension of all or part of the board of directors, should all be at the court's disposal when sentencing for corporate manslaughter or homicide, under the new law to take effect next month. Ray Hurst, president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) said: “We’re keen that those organisations found guilty of this grave offence are required to make the fundamental changes needed to improve their leadership, systems and cultures.”
IOSH news release • Risks 346
Hazards news, 8 March 2008

Britain: HSE gets a funding standstill
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors’ union Prospect has expressed relief at a government decision to not impose “further deep cuts on HSE's resources.” Prospect negotiator Mike Macdonald said: “Given the increasing pressures on occupational health and safety, our members believe that a 20 per cent increase in funding is needed to improve Britain's health and safety record to an acceptable standard.”
Prospect news release
Hazards news, 8 March 2008

Turkey: Dockyard strike against ‘work homicides’
Thousands of Turkish dockyard workers took strike action on 27 February in protest at a rash of workplace deaths in Tuzla’s dockyards. The strike, called by dockworkers in the DISK trade union, came after 18 deaths in eight months. Turkish Daily News • Atilim • Risks 345
Hazards news, 1 March 2008

China: Life sentences for mine officials
Three people have been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court for their roles in a mine explosion that killed 105 people last year. Twice as many people as permitted were working in the mine at the time of the blast, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhau news report • Risks 345
Hazards news, 1 March 2008

Britain: Confused policy leads to fines mess
The government is “schizophrenic” on workplace health and safety enforcement, setting improvement targets and talking tough in the aftermath of major accidents but then espousing deregulation and less enforcement by a pared back Health and Safety Executive (HSE), according to a new report.
Health and Safety Bulletin • Risks 345
Hazards news, 1 March 2008

Britain: Corus fined over worker's death
Steelmaker Corus has been fined £250,000 and told to pay costs of £43,000 after the death of a worker at its Trostre plant in Llanelli. Francis Coles, 42, known as Frank, died when he was struck on the neck by a guard plate in 2003.
BBC News Online • More on the Corus safety record • Risks 344
Hazards news, 23 February 2008

Britain: Death trap sites need enforcement
News that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) this month closed 10 out of 11 construction sites visited in Aberdeen during an enforcement blitz has come as no surprise to construction union UCATT. UCATT said while it welcomed the HSE’s decision to target construction sites in a series of February blitzes, it believes that “it is only a sticking plaster” that will not ensure construction bosses take safety seriously all the time.
UCATT news release • Risks 344
Hazards news, 23 February 2008

Canada: First conviction under work deaths law
A Quebec employer has become the first convicted under Canada’s workplace deaths law. Transpavé, a manufacturer of concrete blocks, pleaded guilty to criminal charges relating to the death of 23-year-old Steve L'Ecuyer in October 2005.
Risks 343
Hazards news, 16 February 2008

Britain: Family dismay at teen’s work death fines
Safety campaigners and the family of a teenage construction worker killed as a result of the negligence of three site firms have expressed dismay at the size of the penalties imposed by a court. Steven Burke, 17, died on 30 January 2004 just a fortnight after his bosses have been served with a warning notice because two safety harnesses were in such poor condition.
FACK news release • Channel M video clip • Risks 343
Hazards news, 16 February 2008

USA: What to do when the watchdog won’t watch?
A series of devastating workplace disasters have focused attention on US safety watchdog OSHA – which appears to have been neither watching nor acting. For the second time in two months, America has witnessed a catastrophic industrial explosion involving multiple fatalities – and in both cases the watchdog had been previously urged introduce rules after earlier similar tragedies.
The Pump Handle • Risks 343
Hazards news, 16 February 2008

Britain: Safety breaches shut 10 out of 11 sites
Safety inspectors visited 11 building sites in Aberdeen - and closed down all but one of them due to “bad and dangerous” working practices. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) made random unannounced spot checks on refurbishment sites as part of a national blitz.
Risks 343
Hazards news, 16 February 2008

Britain: Oil platform closed due to safety problems
An unsafe North Sea oil platform has been closed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), according to reports. Trade magazine Upstream says the Maersk Janice platform must remain shut down until a catalogue of serious safety failures has been fixed; offshore unions said workers who criticised safety standards on the platform have been ‘NRB’d’ – not required back.
Risks 343
Hazards news, 16 February 2008

Britain: Six figure fine after scrapyard death
A Coventry scrapyard has been ordered to pay out over a quarter of a million pounds in fines and costs after a worker was killed by a reversing skip lorry. Easco (Midlands) Limited was fined £200,000 and ordered to pay £55,000 costs at Coventry Crown Court on 5 February, after pleading guilty to a safety charge – Easco had previously had warnings about the practice at other sites.
Risks 342
Hazards news, 9 February 2008

Britain: Serial failures in work death probe
A probe into the horrific death at work of a Glasgow butcher was hampered by a series of failures by official agencies, a hearing has concluded. Thomas Bolesworth, 65, died after a pot of boiling stew fell on top of him, Glasgow Sheriff Court heard.
Scottish Courts report: Sheriff’s opinion • Risks 342
Hazards news, 9 February 2008

Britain: Firm fined for forklift folly
A Carlisle joinery firm has been fined after an employee was lifted eight feet into the air on a forklift truck to fit a company sign, just as a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector made a call. Dick Thompson and Co (Cumbria) Ltd was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £834.39 costs at Carlisle Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to a safety offence.
Risks 342
Hazards news, 9 February 2008

Britain: Peg bonuses to worker safety success
Britain's biggest companies are being urged to radically alter the way they pay their directors by linking their bonuses to non-financial measures such as environmental protection and the safety of employees. The Guardian reported this week that the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents public sector pension funds with £85bn of assets, has already urged its members to oppose pay policies at oil companies BP and Shell because they do not include any references to the safety of employees.
Risks 342
Hazards news, 9 February 2008

Australia: Union action call on death figures
Figures revealing Australia’s worsening workplace death toll highlight the need for urgent action, the country’s top union body ACTU has said. A report this week from the Australian Safety Compensation Council shows 162 people died in workplaces in the year July 2006 to June 2007, an increase from 157 the previous year.
Risks 341
Hazards news, 2 February 2008

Britain: Call for vigilance after site death no.50
Construction union UCATT has called for building bosses to prioritise safety on sites, following the death last week of a construction worker in Swansea – thought to be the 50th worker to die since April last year.
Risks 341
Hazards news, 2 February 2008

USA: Watchdog neglects to fine danger mines
US federal regulators have allowed mine operators to avoid fines for thousands of health and safety citations, despite a federal law that requires monetary penalties for such violations, government officials have confirmed. A report in the Charleston Gazette says over the last six years, the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration did not assess civil penalties for about 4,000 violations, according to preliminary MSHA data.
Risks 341
Hazards news, 2 February 2008

Britain: Safety criticism over firefighter deaths
An investigation into a blaze which led to the deaths of four firefighters has found officers were not given enough information before attending the scene, a breach of safety laws. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service with a legally-binding improvement notice after the warehouse fire in November 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 340
Hazards news, 26 January 2008

China: Official crackdown on work deaths
Dozens of Chinese officials are to be prosecuted or punished over fatal accidents in the workplace. Works minister Wang Wei announced that prosecutors would consider cases against 78 managers and officials, and said 105 had already been disciplined.
Risks 340
Hazards news, 26 January 2008

Britain: Weakened HSE has ‘dumbed down’ role
A “serious weakening” of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and a “dumbing down” of its strategy is leaving workers without adequate protection and at risk of deadly diseases, MPs have been told. In its submission to the Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry into the operations and work of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and HSE, the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) questioned the watchdog’s strategy and called for more emphasis on prevention and enforcement.
IOM news release and full submission to the Work and Pensions Select Committee inquiry into the operations and work of HSE/HSC [pdf] • Risks 340
Hazards news, 26 January 2008

Britain: TUC calls for more from HSE
Rigorous enforcement of safety laws by a properly resourced safety watchdog must be a top priority, TUC has told MPs. The call comes in a TUC written submission to parliament’s Work and Pensions Select Committee hearing on the work of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Health and Safety Commission (HSC).
TUC evidence to Work and Pensions Select Committee on the HSE/C • Hazards enforcement webpages • Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

Britain: Risky company fined after explosion
Storeys Industrial Products, formerly known as Wardle Storeys, was fined £350,000 and ordered to pay £60,000 costs at Chelmsford Crown Court for safety offences. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution followed an explosion on 29 November 2005 at the firm’s Brantham Works, Brantham that left 55-year-old employee John Balls with serious burns.
Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

Britain: Unlawful killing verdict quashed
An inquest verdict of unlawful killing on two men who died after gas leaked into the confined space where they were working has been overturned by the High Court. Richard Clarkson, 29, and Stuart Jordan, 50, who worked for serial offender Bodycote HIP Ltd at a Hereford metal refining plant, died in June 2004 after an argon leak.
BBC News Online • Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

Britain: Action call on ‘corporate killing injustice’
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and families of workers killed at work have told the country’s politicians about their “deep disappointment” with forthcoming corporate homicide legislation and the treatment of bereaved relatives.
Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) • Risks 339
Hazards news, 19 January 2008

South Korea: Warehouse inferno kills 40
Firefighters say 40 people are now believed to have died in a 7 January fire at a warehouse in South Korea. Hundreds of firefighters were involved in efforts to contain the blaze at Icheon, 80km (50 miles) south of Seoul. Press reports 57 people were in the building, a newly built cold storage facility, when the fire broke out.
The Standard • Xinhua • BBC News Online • Risks 338
Hazards news,12 January 2008

Britain: Director gets community service
A company director has been sentenced to 100 hours of work in the community after the death of construction worker Andrew Bridges, 25, who was crushed by a falling concrete slab. Norman Ellis, of Q Homes (Yorkshire) Ltd, must perform community service and pay £6,000 costs after the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecution.
HSE news release • Building • Risks 338
Hazards news,12 January 2008

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