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March/April 2023 issue

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Work equipment
Sector: Local government
Manufacturing and engineering
News

Shredder injury brings £300k fine for recycling firm

Open-access content Monday 24th October 2016
From the archive:  Just so you know, this article is more than 3 years old.

The plant mechanic, employed by Countrystyle Recycling, was fixing the shredder on 7 October 2013. A metal plate forming the roof of the hammer drum -- in which waste material is smashed into smaller pieces by hammers -- had become detached.

Maidstone Magistrates' Court heard the employee was kneeling on a conveyor belt inside the shredder when it restarted. He was thrown from the machine, fracturing his right leg and left arm.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the company failed to enforce the "safe stop" process, which should have been followed when using dangerous parts of machinery, and had allowed unchallenged poor practice to become the norm.

Countrystyle Recycling, which has waste management contracts with the Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent county authorities, was fined and ordered to pay £8,903 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching s 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

However, despite its guilty plea, the company was surprised by the level of the fine and is considering an appeal.

A spokesperson for Countrystyle Recycling told Resource magazine: "Following the submission of a guilty plea in this case, the company is surprised by the extent of the fine imposed which seems disproportionate to the circumstances of the offence and the actual harm suffered. Accordingly, the company is considering the possibility of an appeal with its legal advisers."

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 Goodyear fined $1m over deaths at US manufacturing plant

Wednesday 26th October 2016
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry said that its Virginia Occupational Safety and Health (VOSH) programme cited four “wilful” and 115 “serious” violations and $1,012,400 in penalties to the multinational tyre manufacturer earlier this month as a result of comprehensive site inspections.    Four workers have died in accidents at the plant since August last year.
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 Two contractors fined after worker severely burned by 11kV power line

Thursday 27th October 2016
Norwich Crown Court was told that contract farming company L F Papworth and T W Page & Son, a water supply engineer that serves Norfolk and Suffolk, were working in the Norfolk village of Felmingham, drilling boreholes for crop irrigation. T. W. Page employee Jonathan Howes was operating the controls of a lorry-mounted drilling rig on 29 April 2014. His co-worker moved the lorry and this caused the drilling rig’s mast to strike an 11kV overhead power line.
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 Damaged trolley brings £130k fine for metals supplier

Thursday 13th October 2016
Luke Simpson and another member of staff were manually moving the four-wheeled trolley loaded with 18 metal bars and weighing approximately 900 kg at Smiths Metal Centres’ site in Bedfordshire.  The trolley tipped over, Luton Magistrates’ Court was told, and the bars toppled off trapping Simpson. He was taken to hospital with a broken leg and crushed foot, most of which had to be amputated despite multiple operations. He now has a prosthetic foot and has returned to work on a part-time basis only.
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 Tarmac Trading fined £1.3m after OAP died at Liverpool roadworks

Monday 24th October 2016
Enterprise Liverpool had been contracted by the council to carry out resurfacing works on Queens Drive in Liverpool and it subcontracted Tarmac Trading. On 3 July 2012, a 74-year-old man sustained head and back injuries when he was struck by a car while crossing at temporary lights. Liverpool Crown Court was told that one side of the Queens Drive dual carriageway had been put into a contraflow to allow vehicles to travel in both directions. However, the temporary pedestrian lights were not working and no alternative was provided.
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 Garage owner gave HSE false identity

Tuesday 25th October 2016
A mechanic sustained injuries to his thigh when he was attacked by the dog in January 2014. When the HSE visited the garage, it uncovered various offences, including spray painting without appropriate control measures to prevent workers and members of the public from breathing in hazardous chemicals, an unsafe vehicle lift, and a lack of adequate welfare facilities. The HSE had previously taken enforcement action against the garage’s owner, Mehmet Salih, in relation to these offences.
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 Aberfan remembered

Friday 21st October 2016
The Welsh village of Aberfan, in the Taff Valley near Merthyr Tydfil, was engulfed in more than 40,000 cu m of mine waste. The waste, mud, rock and coal from the Merthyr colliery, operated by the National Coal Board (NCB), had been dumped in seven mountainous tips, known as slag heaps, on the lower slopes of the mountain behind the village.
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 £175k fine after concrete pump caused brain trauma

Monday 27th March 2023
Singh Will Mix It has been convicted of safety failings after a worker was hit in the head by a concrete pump while being operated by an untrained colleague – the firm has since become insolvent.
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 Just six months to register for Building Safety Regulator, HSE warns

Monday 27th March 2023
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding those responsible for the safety of high-rise residential buildings in England have six months from April to register with the new Building Safety Regulator by law.
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 Welsh ambulance worker who caught Covid from patient died of an industrial disease, concludes coroner

Monday 27th March 2023
A coroner has concluded that an ambulance worker in Wales who caught Covid while attending to an infected patient died from an ‘industrial disease’.
Open-access content

Latest from Sector: Local government

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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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 Council fined £100k over seven HAVS injuries

Friday 13th September 2019
Dacorum Borough Council has been fined £100,000 for failing to protect its employees from hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) after seven cases were reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over a single year.
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 EU-OSHA resource to help get workers talking about MSDs

Wednesday 21st August 2019
A new resource for employers to help promote workplace dialogue about musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) has been published by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). 
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 Expert analysis of HSE stats in manufacturing

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 Exclusive interview: why Nestlé was fined £800,000 for repeat incidents

Wednesday 23rd November 2022
IOSH magazine spoke to HSE inspector Bill Gilroy about a serious accident at a Nestlé factory in Newcastle – an almost carbon copy of a previous incident at another of the confectionary firm’s factories.
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 G4S: Vehicle for change

Friday 27th May 2022
The switch to electric vehicles is changing the risk landscape for car manufacturers. We found out how G4S is protecting assembly line workers and its first responders
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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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 Ineffective control measures on industrial food mixer led to amputation and £858k fine

Thursday 12th January 2023
A Kent-based food production company has been fined £858,000 after a 26-year-old employee had to have his right arm surgically removed following an incident.
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 Chipboard manufacturer lands record £2.15m Scottish fine for fatal 90% burns

Tuesday 29th November 2022
Chipboard manufacturer Norbord Europe Limited has been fined £2.15m after a four-week trial held at Perth Sheriff Court in Scotland found that a series of failings at its Cowie site in Stirlingshire in July 2016 had led to an employee’s death.
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 Poor planning of floorspace led to worker’s burns death

Thursday 24th November 2022
We spoke to HSE Inspector Rose Leese-Weller about how failures in the earliest stages of planning a catering equipment cleaning facility’s shopfloor ultimately led to a worker fatality.
Open-access content
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