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May/June 2023 issue

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Manufacturing and engineering
News

Aerospace co put workers at risk of developing HAVS for 22 years

Open-access content Friday 17th August 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Aerospace co put workers at risk of developing HAVS for 22 years

Cardiff Crown Court was told that 30 of Nordam Europe's employees were exposed to risk of "significant" harm.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that workers at the company's site in Gwent, South Wales, used various hand-held vibrating tools, including orbital sanders, rivet guns, grinders and drills.

It said Nordam Europe "should have carried out a suitable assessment of work activities which exposed employees to vibration and should have implemented additional controls to reduce exposure so far as was reasonably practicable".

The HSE also found the company had failed to implement a safe system of work to control exposure to vibration and there was no suitable health surveillance to identify symptoms at an early stage of the disease. "This would have prevented it from progressing to a disabling condition", it said.

Nordam Europe, which is a joint venture between Oklahoma, US-headquartered aerospace firm Nordam and GE Aircraft Engine Services, pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It was fined and ordered to pay costs of £39,620.

HSE inspector Janet Hensey said: "This was a case of the company completely failing to grasp the importance of HAVS health surveillance.

"If they had understood why health surveillance was necessary, it would have ensured that it had the right systems in place to monitor workers' health and employees' condition would not have been allowed to develop to a severe and life-altering stage."

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Sheffield Crown Court | ©Jonathan Thacker (cc-by-sa/2.0)

 £500k fine over smith’s death while using wrong hammer

Tuesday 21st August 2018
Abbey Forged Products employee Billy Fairweather, 35, was part of a group of four that had been tasked with hammering pieces of hard alloy. While he was working on a small piece of metal, he switched from the powered hammer he had been assigned to a larger, more powerful one. Sheffield Crown Court was told that he was knelt close to the hammer when the piece of hard alloy misaligned and was forcefully expelled. Fairweather fell backwards and sustained fatal injuries.
Open-access content
The drum from which the toxic gas was released

 Flavour maker fined for toxic gas leak and amputation

Monday 6th August 2018
In October 2016, a worker at Frutarom’s premises was decanting a part-finished batch of flavouring from a drum into two smaller containers when hydrogen sulphide was released from the liquid being emptied. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors found that the business had used the toxic gas, which has been linked to fatalities in the offshore oil and gas, waste and recycling and farming industries, as part of the manufacturing process for several years.
Open-access content
©iStock/yuriz

 Unethical bosses face fines or bans under proposed ‘phoenix’ reforms

Friday 31st August 2018
The Insolvency Service’s powers to ban company directors will be extended to those involved in “phoenixing”, also known as “bumping companies”, in order to dodge paying a dissolved company’s debts to their own staff and creditors.
Open-access content
©Roger Templeman (cc-by-sa/2.0)

 Fall from dangerous MEWP lands bed firm with £113k fine

Monday 3rd September 2018
The And So To Bed employee was standing on the platform, which was attached to a forklift truck and was open sided, on 1 February 2017 when the accident happened at the company’s factory in Bridport, Dorset. He sustained injuries to his knee and face, Poole Magistrates’ Court was told.The company was fined £113,000 plus £6,924 costs after it pleaded guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and reg 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.
Open-access content

 Lack of risk assessment saw workers engulfed in spray booth explosion

Monday 30th July 2018
The Eastern Daily Press reported that 56-year-old Barry Joy and 28-year-old Daniel Timbers had been working at Harford Attachments’ new factory on Spar Road in Norwich when the paint booth they were working in exploded and turned into a fireball.
Open-access content

 ‘Foolhardy’ Tata Steel fined £450k after worker fell into open pit

Thursday 6th September 2018
Steven Ayres was injured working as a scaler on the scarfing line, in which metal is torched to remove imperfections, at the steelmaker’s billet mill in Stocksbridge, Sheffield. A billet is a cast or hot-rolled length of steel that can be further processed to make bars or rods. Water runoff and impurities from the scarfing process were collected in a skip stored below ground in a pit 3.7 m by 2.5 m by 2.5 m and covered by two metal plates that sat flush with the floor.
Open-access content
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