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March/April 2023 issue

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News

Oz ambulance service fined over paramedic’s fatal overdose

Open-access content Monday 12th March 2018
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

Oz ambulance service fined over paramedic's fatal overdose

Ambulance Victoria pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe working environment and failing to ensure volunteer officers were not exposed to risks under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. The organisation was fined A$200,000 (£113,500) on each charge at Warrnambool Magistrates' Court on 8 March.

The prosecution follows a WorkSafe Victoria investigation into Ambulance Victoria's management of scheduled medication after the paramedic was found dead at the ambulance station in Heywood near Portland, 357 km west of Melbourne, in January 2015 by his wife and son. The paramedic was a team manager with 30 years' experience and the only employee working at the station. The court heard both morphine and fentanyl were found in his system. He died due to drug toxicity.

WorkSafe Victoria's investigation found that three-monthly audits on receipt, movement, administration and disposal of the strong painkillers were missed.

Since the incident, Ambulance Victoria has made changes to the management of its drug stocks, including introducing a regular check of records to identify any unusual ordering or administration patterns for both drugs.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) carried out an investigation in 2017 which identified several paramedics who used illicit drugs, including one who stole and used fentanyl and morphine.

IBAC recommended a comprehensive review of the use of illicit drugs and the misuse of drugs of dependence by Ambulance Victoria's employees as well as the development and implementation of a more robust framework to prevent and detect such drug use.

Ambulance Victoria is due to provide IBAC with a progress report by 30 March.

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 *UPDATE* Swissport ignored warnings about unsafe baggage handling operations

Tuesday 6th March 2018
Passenger suitcases were being unloaded from a commercial aircraft and lifted on to a flatbed truck before being driven to the terminal building at London Luton Airport in June 2015. The baggage handlers, who were Swissport employees and agency workers, stacked the suitcases above the height restriction marked on the truck cab’s rear window, obstructing the driver’s view.
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 Aviation services co fined £502k after two hurt in separate falls

Tuesday 27th February 2018
The first accident happened while suitcases were being unloaded from an aircraft on to a flatbed lorry in June 2015.Luton Crown Court was told that a baggage handler team leader was standing on the back of the flatbed and instructed his colleague to take the bags to the inbound terminal. The colleague climbed into the cab of the lorry, checked his mirrors and drove away without noticing his boss was still on the vehicle.  The team leader fell off and sustained spinal injuries that left him unable to work for eight weeks.
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 Royal Mail fined £1.6m over yard marshal’s multiple injuries

Friday 6th April 2018
The postal company has been fined £1.6m over the incident – its largest ever amount for a safety offence.  According to a Communication Workers Union (CWU) press release, the worker was struck by a 7.5 tonne large goods vehicle on 12 December 2014. He was knocked unconscious and sustained multiple serious injuries, including a fractured jaw and several broken ribs.  Isleworth Crown Court was told that the London Borough of Hounslow, which brought the prosecution, found a series of failures by Royal Mail.
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 ISO 45001 roundtable - full discussion - gap analyses and assessments

Monday 12th March 2018
 
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 NI railway repairer fined after train hit excavator bucket

Friday 9th March 2018
County Down-based Northern Excavators was sentenced at Craigavon Crown Court and fined £8,000 over the incident, in which it left an excavator bucket on the track near Lisburn in County Antrim. At about 6.50am on 4 February 2016, a six-carriage train carrying eight passengers and three crew members struck the bucket at a speed of 92 kph. No one was injured but a crane had to be used to hoist the damaged train off the track after the bucket became lodged under the fuel tank. The track also had to be repaired.
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 Network Rail fined £733,000 over freight train derailment

Tuesday 20th March 2018
The incident happened at around 8.15pm on 15 October 2013, about 6.4 km south west of Gloucester station on the railway line from Newport via Lydney. The Direct Rail Services-operated freight train was travelling at 111 kph when the rear wheelset of the last wagon derailed on track that had regularly spaced dips in both rails.
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  Morrisons’ £3.5m fine is ‘a warning to all employers’, says council

Friday 24th March 2023
Morrisons supermarket has been fined £3.5 million for failing to ensure the health and safety of an epileptic employee who died after falling from a shop stairway.
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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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Latest from Healthcare

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 The critical role of healthcare workers

Wednesday 9th September 2020
The critical role played by health workers in protecting patients, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic – and action to better support this essential workforce – is brought to the fore on World Patient Safety Day.
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 Union launches guide to protect gig economy workers

Friday 13th September 2019
The public service union Unison has published a new guide for its health and safety representatives to explain how the gig economy has affected its members and what support they can provide.
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 Serious workplace injuries increase suicide risk, US study finds

Tuesday 3rd September 2019
People who have sustained serious workplace injuries are at increased risk of suicide or fatal overdose, according to a study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
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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.
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 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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 Majority of workers accept alcohol and drug testing, survey finds

Tuesday 15th November 2022
Most workers would comply with a corporate alcohol and drug testing policy, according to the findings of a survey that informs the Dräger UK Safety at Work Report 2022.
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 How employers can stay on top of the use of drugs and alcohol at work

Monday 22nd August 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic is behind the rise in reports of drugs and alcohol use in the workplace – and with the rise of homeworking, the problem is only set to get worse. This video explores what safety professionals can do to keep on top of drug and alcohol use at work.

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 Pandemic pressure: the drugs don't work

Friday 1st July 2022
The pandemic has increased the number of employees misusing drugs and alcohol. We explore what this means for safety at work, and what IOSH members can do to keep on top of the problem.
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 In stats: A global view of cancer

Wednesday 31st August 2022
The WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer’s recent Biennial report 2020-2021 reveals some interesting data on global incidence of the disease...
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 SCUBA supplier fined £9.3k in schoolboy coma case

Friday 6th August 2021
A SCUBA equipment supply company has been fined £9,300 and ordered to pay £11,000 costs after providing a diving school with contaminated air that led to children being taken so ill during a training session that one ended up in an induced coma.
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 WorkSafe New Zealand launches Life Shavers campaign

Thursday 3rd June 2021
WorkSafe’s Life Shavers campaign will raise awareness of the need for workers who wear respiratory protective equipment (RPE) for work to be clean shaven.
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 Penalties mount for vehicle parts maker on OSHA’s ‘severe violator enforcement programme’

Wednesday 10th August 2022
The US Department of Labor has presented an Ohio-based vehicle parts manufacturer on its ‘severe violator enforcement programme’ with a fine of $480,240 (approx. £373,000) after inspectors found it had continually exposed workers to multiple machine hazards
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 Dyson lands £1.2m fine after worker escapes more serious injuries

Friday 5th August 2022
Dyson Technologies has been handed a £1.2 million fine after a worker at its Wiltshire site narrowly escaped being crushed by a 1.5 tonne milling machine.
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 Talking shop: hand dominance

Friday 1st July 2022
How should organisations consider left-handedness in their safety management systems? Four industry leaders offer their thoughts.
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 Wind farm firms fined almost £900,000 over security guard’s death

Thursday 25th November 2021
The parent company of a contractor that was building a wind farm in Scotland and a security firm that employed staff to guard the remote site have admitted safety breaches after a security guard was trapped in snow for four and half hours and later died from hypothermia.
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 How COVID-19 increased workplace loneliness

Thursday 11th November 2021
Firms restructured workforces and management processes during the pandemic, but did it come at the cost of isolating their staff members?
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 Care provider fined £20,000 after employee was raped

Friday 24th September 2021
A care company that provides housing support services for vulnerable adults and children has been fined £20,000 after one of its employees was raped by a service user, despite concerns being raised about this particular service user for more that 25 years.
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 Waste firm guilty of corporate manslaughter after worker was struck and killed by a reversing wheeled loader vehicle

Tuesday 28th February 2023
A waste firm and its director have been found guilty over the death of a worker who was run over by a reversing lorry.
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 Principal contractor handed £146k fine for fatal excavator crush goes into liquidation

Tuesday 14th February 2023
Birch Brothers (Kidderminster) Ltd was the principal contractor on a construction project in Derbyshire that was building a concrete overflow weir structure on the site. The Midlands firm had brought in steel fixers and joiners to undertake the work.
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 2.3m fatal fall results in £480,000 fine

Thursday 6th October 2022
We speak with HSE inspector Pippa Trimble about how a lorry driver’s fatal fall resulted in an almost half-million-pound fine
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