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March/April 2023 issue

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News

Government clamps down on unsafe lasers

Open-access content Tuesday 9th January 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Government clamps down on unsafe lasers

In a response to a call for evidence launched last year following a recent increase in the number of incidents involving the reckless use of lasers, the government yesterday (8 January) pledged additional support to local authority ports and borders teams to prevent the unsafe devices entering and being sold in the country.

In 2016 the Civil Aviation Authority received reports of more than 1,250 incidents in which lasers were aimed at low flying aircraft. Such incidents were most frequently reported at Heathrow Airport, it said.

Shining a laser light into a pilot's eyes can cause retinal damage and temporary blindness.

Ministers have said that local authority port teams will now be offered testing products to help them identify and seize high powered lasers, while labelling will be updated with the power level and instructions not to point at eyes or vehicles.

Policing of online laser pointer sales also will be improved by working with online retailers such as eBay, the government said.

The measures follow the publication of the Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Bill, which the Department for Transport (DfT) launched on 20 December 2017.

Under the bill, which has its second reading today (9 January), people who target transport operators with laser devices could be jailed for up to five years and face unlimited fines. It will also make it easier to prosecute offenders by removing the need to prove an intention to endanger a vehicle.

The list of vehicles protected by the new legislation will be expanded beyond airplanes to trains, buses, boats and hovercraft.

The British Transport Police said laser beam attacks against the rail network are a concern. Some 578 laser incidents were recorded between 1 April 2011 and 30 November 2017, an equivalent to about 96 per year.

Aviation minister Baroness Sugg said: "Lasers can dazzle, distract or blind those in control of a vehicle, with serious and potentially even fatal consequences. The government is determined to protect pilots, captains, drivers and their passengers and take action against those who threaten their safety."

Brian Strutton, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association, added: "The [DfT] recently announced the introduction of new tougher laws for those who shine lasers at aircraft. Now the tougher restrictions on importation should hopefully stop high-powered lasers reaching the hands of those with ill-intentions in the first place."

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 UK self-employed safety law exemption breaches charter, says European committee

Friday 26th January 2018
The committee, a monitoring body of the 47-nation Council of Europe, ruled on 24 January that a change in UK law in 2015 which removed certain self-employed work from the HSW Act, breached the UK’s international obligations.Although the committee recognised that only those in relatively less risky work were not now covered by health and safety regulations, it added that the UK was failing to live up to its commitments in the charter.
Open-access content

 Clear your head

Wednesday 24th January 2018
Whatever we like to think, we are all biased. Many of our unconscious biases come from natural psychological processes, which have evolved to help us cope with complexity and, in earlier times, to survive. There is too much information around us to take everything in, so our brains select what seems most relevant.
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 Clocking on

Wednesday 13th December 2017
If you didn’t know what Dr Michael Hastings does for a living, his desk at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (MRC) provides some clues. Academic papers plus a plastic model of the human brain suggest that he’s a neuroscientist. But the mimosa sapling is the real give away, because Hastings studies the body clock and mimosa has a seminal place in our understanding of circadian rhythms.
Open-access content
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 *UPDATE* Kier’s £1.8m penalty for resurfacing banksman’s death

Tuesday 9th January 2018
Kier’s subcontractor Sean Hegarty was also fined £75,000 for its role in the accident, which took place on a stretch of the B1063 north of Lidgate. The principal contractor, Kier Integrated Services, had employed Sean Hegarty to repair the road surface under a contract it had with Suffolk County Council.A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that on 13 May 2014, Hegarty workers were using a road planer to remove the tar from the southbound side of the road, while the northbound side had traffic lights to control the direction of the traffic.
Open-access content
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 Court cuts £700k Whirlpool fine to £300k on appeal

Wednesday 10th January 2018
Barrister Dominic Adamson, who represented the company, said the sentencing judge His Honour Judge Patrick had “erred” in his application of the sentencing guidelines and that the original sentence was “manifestly excessive”.
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 Banksman struck while steadying forklift load

Thursday 11th January 2018
West Hampshire Magistrates’ Court was told that Puma Engineering and Construction employee David White was acting as a banksman when the accident happened on 16 November 2016. He was steadying a load of spools on the forklift as the driver transported them to a flatbed truck parked across the company’s yard in Totton. The truck drove into the back of White’s left heel and he spent four weeks in hospital, where his leg was amputated below the knee.
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 IOSH launches new five-year strategy

Tuesday 21st March 2023
IOSH launches its new five-year strategy this spring. It will build and act on the reshaped purpose and ambition gained during WORK 2022, which ran from 2017 to 2022.
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 Risk & Compliance software provider collaborates with HSE and Costain to improve risk management on worksites

Friday 17th March 2023
A Belfast-based Risk & Compliance software provider has been collaborating with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and construction giant Costain as part of an ongoing project to unlock artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential in improving the management of risks on worksites.
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 Spring budget and occupational health

Friday 17th March 2023
Richard Jones CFIOSH, comments on the occupational health aspects of the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's first budget statement.
Open-access content

Latest from Transport and logistics

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 Life-changing one tonne load fall results in £95,000 fine

Monday 13th March 2023
We spoke to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Andrew Johnson about a case where a one-tonne pallet of glass fell on a United Pallet Network (UK) Limited’s employee, causing life-changing injuries.
Open-access content
fgc

 Siemens to pay £1.4m for train technician’s fatal crush

Tuesday 7th March 2023
Siemens Plc has pleaded guilty to breaching s 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work Act after a self-employed contractor died at its Train Care Facility in west London.
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 Logistics giant Eddie Stobart’s £133k fine for exposing port staff to asbestos

Friday 2nd December 2022
Eddie Stobart has been fined £133,000 for a number of failures that resulted in staff at its rail and container freight port in Widnes, Cheshire being exposed to asbestos.
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 Spring budget and occupational health

Friday 17th March 2023
Richard Jones CFIOSH, comments on the occupational health aspects of the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's first budget statement.
Open-access content
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 Health and safety regulations at risk under draft law

Monday 13th March 2023
A proposed new law aims to revoke EU-derived legislation, including life-saving protections, by December 2023, unless specifically kept or replaced – Richard Jones CFIOSH explains how OSH practitioners can get involved.
Open-access content
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 EU retained bill: governments must close gaps, not open them

Thursday 16th February 2023
Former head of policy at IOSH, Richard Jones CFIOSH, reflects on deregulatory initiatives of this decade, argues that socioeconomic challenges should instead lead to raised OSH standards, as good regulation can benefit all.
Open-access content

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 Putting the brakes on risk

Wednesday 26th October 2022
We look at how new digital technologies can help to improve driver safety and reduce accidents, with practical considerations for IOSH professionals.
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 Ignoring your brain can endanger your safety

Tuesday 15th March 2022
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 CPS rejects corporate manslaughter charge against Highways England over smart motorway death

Friday 11th February 2022
Highways England will not face a corporate manslaughter charge over the death of a 62-year-old woman on a smart motorway because the organisation “did not owe road users a ‘relevant duty of care’” under the Corporate Manslaughter Act 2007, South Yorkshire Police have announced.
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