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May/June 2023 issue

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News

Caffeine experiment overdose leaves students in intensive care

Open-access content Friday 27th January 2017
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Caffeine experiment overdose leaves students in intensive care

Newcastle Crown Court heard how students were learning about the effects of caffeine as part of a sports experiment when the incident happened. Part of the course involved a practical exercise where volunteers were asked to take quantities of caffeine to demonstrate the impact.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that two of the students drank a solution with 100 times the amount that should have been taken as part of the experiment at the university premises in Newcastle upon Tyne. Both volunteers immediately suffered dizziness, blurred vision, vomiting, shaking and rapid heartbeat and were rushed to hospital where their conditions were judged life threatening. The court heard dialysis was required to remove the excessive levels of caffeine from their bodies.

HSE found that the university had not followed the strict procedures it had devised for carrying out experiments. The researchers' instructions were to use 200mg tablets, but these were not available, so the student researchers were given caffeine in powdered form. The students miscalculated the amount of powder to use and the two volunteers overdosed.

The University of Northumbria pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The education establishment was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay costs of £26,468.

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 *UPDATE* University’s caffeine experiment miscalculation almost killed two students

Monday 6th February 2017
A group of second-year sports science students at the University of Northumbria was taking part in a practical exercise to study the effects of caffeine when the incident happened on 23 March 2015. To measure the effects the stimulant had on physical performance, one volunteer was to consume a non-caffeine solution that mixed water and orange juice, while two volunteers – 20-year-old students Alex Rossetto and Luke Parkin were to have caffeine added to their drink.
Open-access content
Image credit: ©iStock/TonyBaggett

 £1m-plus fines rise six-fold in a year

Friday 27th January 2017
The 20 largest fines imposed on businesses for safety and health offences last year totalled £38.6m, compared with £13.5m in 2015 and £4.3m in 2014, according to figures obtained by IOSH and law firm Osborne Clarke following a Freedom of Information Act request.Since 1 February 2016, when the Sentencing Council’s Definitive Guideline for Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences came in to force, there have been 19 fines of £1m or more. In 2015 there were just three fines that exceeded £1m and in 2014 there were none.
Open-access content
©Grant Smith /View Pictures/REX/Shutterstock

 Construction heads launch Mates in Mind scheme to reduce mental illness toll

Thursday 26th January 2017
With pump-priming funding from the British Safety Council, Mates in Mind has been registered as a charity and will coordinate a tiered training package targeted at managers down to operatives, provided by partners Mental Health First Aid, the mental health charity, Mind, and the Samaritans.
Open-access content

 Hundreds of workers facing dress code discrimination, say MPs

Wednesday 25th January 2017
High Heels and Workplace Dress Codes was published by two UK parliamentary groups, the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee, and claims that the extreme pain women suffer from wearing high heels affects their concentration and ability to focus.
Open-access content
©iStockphoto/ScottKrycia

 Faked testing report costs asbestos analyst £6,000

Tuesday 24th January 2017
In November 2015 Barrie Lyons had been contracted to carry out the final inspection and air testing at a construction site in Manchester, following licensed asbestos removal. The job required him to carry out a thorough examination of the area where the asbestos had been removed, and collect and evaluate air samples to ensure it was free of the dangerous fibres.
Open-access content

 CO exposure on construction site left worker hospitalised

Tuesday 31st January 2017
The workers were using a petrol saw to cut out an existing concrete floor at a fish factory in Hull. In order to protect the factory’s surfaces from dust, they created a sealed enclosure from timber and polythene. The space was not ventilated and in October 2015 there was a build-up of carbon monoxide from the saw, which left one worker hospitalised. The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) investigation found Westland had not planned the work and failed to consider the dangers of an un-ventilated tent.
Open-access content
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