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May/June 2023 issue

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Beverage gas supplier fined £40k over cylinder explosion

Open-access content Wednesday 23rd August 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

J & R Gases employee Luke Hawthorn, 30, was at the company's depot in Nelson, Lancashire, filling gas cylinders using a high-pressure system.

As he was filling a cylinder, another blew up nearby. He was badly injured by flying shrapnel and airlifted to hospital, where his leg had to be amputated below the knee.

A Lancashire Telegraph report said other workers were also injured in the explosion, which was likely to have been caused by fluid left in the cylinder that created cracks in its walls.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Hawthorn had not carried out thorough pre-fill checks before starting the work because the company had not given him proper training or instruction.

He had only worked at the firm for four months and had no previous experience of filling cylinders, Blackpool Magistrates' Court was told.

J & R Gases was found guilty of a breach of s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £40,000 plus nearly £6,000 in costs on 20 August.

The company now inspects cylinders every five years instead of ten.

After the trial, HSE inspector Steven Boyd said: "Robust pre-fill checks of high pressure cylinders should be undertaken before they are filled and workers must be informed of this.

"The injured worker should have received adequate training, instruction and supervision to be able to carry out their work safely, but the company failed to fully do this."

You may also be interested in...

Greencore

 Greencore fined £1m over fatal stepladder fall

Wednesday 6th September 2017
Hull Crown Court was told that Greencore Grocery had contracted the worker to carry out repairs at its factory in Hull in October 2013. The company provided the electrician with a stepladder to stand on while wiring a motor situated above a machine, when he fell and sustained fatal injuries. Greencore had failed to properly plan the job, said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), including access arrangements for the installation of motors.
Open-access content

 *UPDATE* Greencore supplied 1.7 m ladder for 3 m job

Monday 11th September 2017
Self-employed electrician David Shanks had been contracted by Greencore to fit new machinery designed to deliver icing sugar to mixing machines located in the sugar paste room at its cake and dessert production factory in Hull. The work involved wiring two motors, which were on a gantry 3 m above ground.
Open-access content
The scrubber column, which is displaced up and at an angle. It should be on top of T13 and vertical. Image credit: HSE

 *UPDATE* Chemical firm’s HAZOP oversight triggers £1.2m explosion penalty

Monday 31st July 2017
Industrial Chemicals’ risk assessment ignored the explosive risk posed by hydrogen in vent gas, which was routed through the plant’s emergency scrubber at its control of major accident hazards (COMAH) regulated site in West Thurrock in Essex. The gas ignited and triggered an explosion, destroying a tank and displacing a scrubber column. Two workers suffered minor injuries in the blast as the manufacturer was carrying out the final stage in a series of tests to produce hydrochloric acid in the plant’s new burner on 26 September 2013.
Open-access content

 Worker fractured skull in 6 m scaffold fall

Wednesday 23rd August 2017
R J Scaffolding had not trained its employee, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said, nor had it given him appropriate equipment.It also found that the supervisor overseeing the work was not competent. The worker was in an induced coma for two weeks after the fall on 2 June 2016. Bristol Magistrates’ Court was told that he sustained five skull fractures and lost the sight in his right eye.   R J Scaffolding pleaded guilty to breaching reg 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. It has been fined £26,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,658.
Open-access content
Image credit: ©iStock/eriksvoboda

 Worker burned in paper coater fire

Tuesday 22nd August 2017
Olympic Varnish Company, whose activities include metallic coating for giftwrap, had failed to identify the risks of using highly flammable liquids, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said following its investigation into the 10 July 2015 accident.  The company, based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, has been fined £16,000 plus £4,505 costs after it admitted breaching reg 6(1) of the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002, which covers the elimination or reduction of risks from dangerous substances.
Open-access content

 Geotextile maker fined over machine guarding failure

Friday 25th August 2017
Exeter Magistrates’ Court was told that Anthony Seward was preparing a piece of machinery for the next shift when his hand was drawn in to the rotating rollers. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Heathcoat Fabrics had not replaced the guard that had broken down two years before and had fitted an emergency stop wire instead.The guard was fixed the day after the incident happened, on 23 August 2014.
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