Fall from height - Roofing Contractor

A roofing contractor from East London suffered a broken back after falling through the skylight of a building extension. Investigation by the HSE revealed that safety procedures had been overlooked. The worker fell while removing tarpaulin from the one-storey roof extension at a flat in South West London back in December 2006. The tarpaulin had been put in place to provide the ground floor of the flat with weather protection. The worker was removing this when the tarpaulin snagged. The man stepped on some insulating board that had been laid across the skylight, which gave way under his weight. He fell over three metres to the concrete floor below.

The injured persons employer pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6 (3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and was fined £10,000, with costs of £7,000.

The injured worker suffered a broken back as a result of the fall and can now only walk short distances and needs to use a walking stick. The injured worker's condition will not improve and he will not be able to return to work in the construction industry.

Speaking after the sentence, the injured man showed, again, how such injuries destroys lives:

Prior to the incident, I had an active life and enjoyed numerous outdoor activities, which I can no longer pursue. I no longer work as a result of my injuries. The incident has effectively turned my life upside down. I suffer terrible flashbacks and am currently on medication.

The HSE Inspector commented:

The impact on this man's life has been immeasurable. This incident could easily have been avoided, and illustrates there is no room for complacency even when working on small sites. Work at height is the single largest safety hazard on construction sites and needs to be properly managed.

Fall from height fatality costs BT nearly half a million Pounds

British Telecommunications Plc (BT) has been fined £300,000 following the death of a worker who fell from height. The 52 year old power construction engineer fell from a ladder while carrying out installation works and suffered fatal head injuries. the incident occurred at London's Canonbury Telephone Exchange on 27 October 2006.

BT was prosecuted after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Crown Court heard that the worker was installing distribution boards and running cabling as part of his work and that he would have been working at a height of more than four metres. He fell from a nine-step wooden ladder, sustaining a serious head injury and he died 18 days later.

The HSE investigation found a number of issues including a failure to ensure the work at height was properly planned. they also found that the worker was provided with suitable access equipment for work at height. Two wooden ladders found at the scene had not been subject to an annual inspection, contrary to BT's own health and safety policy. BT were found guilty of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at a previous hearing. Today, they were fined £300,000 and were ordered to pay costs of £196,150

The HSE inspector, said:

The fact that this incident was entirely avoidable makes Mr Askew's death all the more tragic.

The dangers posed by work at height are well known, yet BT failed to create the conditions to ensure this task was carried out safely and the appropriate access equipment was used.

Employers have a responsibility to ensure that work at height is properly planned and organised.

Showing the human suffering side of workplace safety, the wife of the worker killed in this incident said:

I spent over 30 happy, irreplaceable years with my husband. He was a remarkable father and husband. What do I have to look forward to now? My husband was my past and I thought he was my future.

I feel sad my husband will never see two of his children get married. Most of all I feel sad that I see such sadness in my children's eyes when they talk of their father.

I feel sad that my husband worked all his life and never got the chance to retire and enjoy the life he was working so hard towards.

I share a massive disappointment that this happened within a workforce of such a large company and where the safety of every employee should have been assured.

Note:

Sadly, falls from height remain the most common cause of workplace fatality. In the accident statistics for the period of 2008 - 2009 there were 35 fatalities, 4654 major injuries and a further 7065 injuries that caused the injured person to be off work for over three days or more, due to a fall from height.

BT to Appeal - it is understood that BT are to appeal against the fine in this case. More on this later.

A Safety Consultant's day in London

Cold, early start - off to London on the 05.53 hrs train from Loughborough.
Quick stop off for breakfast at a small cafe near to Paddington Station before meeting a great client with a series of Hotel and Residential properties. A general run through some issues that they are having on one site and then off to visit a series of their more local Residential Property units. A few issues were identified on these sites and some improvements suggested (to ease the burden of record keeping). After that, it was over to Holborn to carry out a Safety Compliance Audit for the Managing Agent at a multi-let office block. Only issue on this site was to improve the control of contractors (which was largely being done well). Then back on the underground and onto the train. Train far too warm - dozed for most of the return journey.

Day over, except for some report writing ...

Another day in London a couple of weeks later
Another cold and early start, but at least the snow and ice was no longer a problem. One thought in my mind - will the student demonstrations of the previous evening create any lingering travel delays.

I met my first client of the day for a quick review of the general safety, welfare and fire safety arrangements of their small office area in a much larger building near to Victoria Station. After that, over to a smart office block near to King's Cross Station to take part in a job interview - working with a client to assist them in several interesting and challenging areas of change in their company. On at a relentless gallop over to Holborn to carry out a safety inspection of the common areas of a multi-let office block before heading home at the end on a gruelling, but interesting, day. Again, the reports need to be written up ...

Immediate Future
Several more early starts and late finishes commuting to London to continue my health and safety consultancy work. Hard work, yes - but also fascinating and fun!

Ten years in business

How time flows over us! I have now been running my own Company for ten years. Over this period, my business has developed and grown. I now work with a wider range of clients than ever before, delivering more services than ever before. Over that time, I have seen changes in health and safety legislation and changes in the way it is perceived and used. Like many consultants I too often find that health and safety is used by some employers as a reason for not doing things. However, I am able to help many of my clients improve their workplace and their productivity while improving aspects of safety. Some clients now even use health and safety as a way to market themselves and to differentiate themselves from others in similiar fields (developing a USP, in marketing speak).

To celebrate the achievement of ten years running my own business, I have added an incentive to new clients - this can be viewed on the website.

The next few years will see the Company develop further, with a greater emphasis on the food safety and on the fire safety aspects of the business.

Some simple information on asbestos

What is asbestos?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous material and has been used for about 150 years on a large scale. It is versatile, plentiful and ideal as a fire-proofing and insulation material. But it can be deadly!


The three main types of asbestos that have been used commercially are:
-Crocidolite (blue)
-Amosite (brown)
-Chrysotile (white)

Basic facts:
1000 people who worked in these trades die from cancer every year as a result of breathing asbestos fibres.
There’s still a lot of old asbestos in buildings
Any building built or refurbished before 2000 is still likely to contain asbestos.
Asbestos is responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths a year

Why is it dangerous?
If you inhale asbestos fibres (which are long and thin) they can become lodged in the tissue of your chest and your body’s natural defences may not be able to easily break them down. This can lead to lung diseases (mainly cancers), particularly if you are repeatedly exposed to fibres over a number of years.

Effects on health:

- Exposure to asbestos can cause three main diseases:
- Asbestosis: irreversible scarring of the lungs;
- Lung cancer: increased incidence, particularly if you smoke;
- Mesothelioma: cancer of the lining of the lungs or stomach.
Note: These diseases have no cure – mesothelioma and lung cancer are fatal diseases.
Typically, there can be a 15–60 years gap between first exposure and diagnosis.

Who’s at risk?

- Electricians
- Plumbers
- Date cabling operatives
- Joiners
- Heating & ventilation engineers
- Construction workers
- Other similar occupations

Where is it found?

- Asbestos cement products
- Textured pain coatings
- Floors tiles, textiles and composites
- Sprayed coatings on ceilings, walls and beams
- Asbestos insulation boards
- Lagging
- Fire blankets
- Window sills
- Panelling
- Loose asbestos in ceiling/floor cavity

What to do if you discover asbestos at work:

- Stop work
- Inform supervisor/contract manager
- Inform client
- Do not restart until told to do so by contracts manager or supervisor

If you think you may be working with asbestos:

- Liaise with the client
- Request a copy of a recent asbestos survey
- Check the asbestos survey against the work that you will be doing
- Constant vigilance

What to do if you need to work with it:

- Use hand tools - not power tools: they create too much dust
- Keep materials damp - not too wet
- Wear a properly fitted, suitable mask (eg. disposable FFP3 type). An ordinary dust mask will not be effective
- Don't smoke, eat or drink in the work area
- Double-bag asbestos waste and label the bags clearly and correctly
- Clean up as you go - use a special (Class H) vacuum cleaner, don’t sweep up asbestos.
- After work, wipe down your overalls with a damp rag or wear disposable overalls
- Always remove overalls before removing your mask
- Don't take overalls home to wash
- Wear boots without laces or use disposable boot covers
- Put disposable clothing items in asbestos waste bags and dispose of them properly- don’t reuse disposable clothing.

- Don't carry asbestos into your car or home – even accidentally!

Need Help? Need Asbestos Awareness Training? Website

Buncefield fines -

Five companies have been told to pay more than £9m for their parts in the Buncefield oil depot fire which occurred in December 2005. It is reported that the explosion was equivalent to a 2.4-magnitude earthquake and it caused Europe's biggest fire since World War Two.

Sentencing the firms at St Albans Crown Court, Judge Sir David Calvert-Smith said:

"Had the explosion happened during a working day, the loss of life may have been measured in tens or even hundreds."

The companies were fined a total of £5.35m and ordered to pay costs of £4.08m.

Total was fined £3.6m plus £2.6m in costs, Hertfordshire Oil Storage was fined £1.45m plus £1m costs, British Pipeline Agency will pay £300,000 plus £480,000 in costs, Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd (now in administration) and TAV Engineering were both fined £1,000 and each ordered to pay £500 in costs.

Scores on the foods - Food Hygiene

The launch of the new Scores on the Doors website has sharpened the focus on restaurant hygiene. The scores are based on audits conducted by Environmental Health Officers on visits to premises.

For those with a strong health and hygiene record, the chance to have their scores displayed on a website is a great opportunity to obtain more customers and communicate high standards. Conversely, those with low scores are facing increasing media scrutiny: with a string of articles using Scores on the Doors to condemn and vilify restaurants for their poor hygiene.

The control of pests, such as mice, rats, flies and cockroaches, is a crucial aspect of a restaurant’s overall hygiene and one that all restaurant owners should be aware of. There is no reason for restaurants to fear the negative consequences if they are aware of the signs to look for and take simple preventative measures to reduce the level of risk.
Here are a few handy hints that are useful to remember:

• dark spots on ceilings can be identified as fly faeces
• dark smear marks on the floors, doors and skirting boards will appear from mice and rodents’ fur
• droppings and smears can appear in areas that are not regularly cleaned, such as the window display of a restaurant
• fly traps with large amounts of dead flies probably don’t work any more and will need servicing

But perhaps the most important method of preventing infestation is to ensure that your premises is clean and tidy. Not only will this help to improve your overall score, but a clean and tidy premises is one that pests don’t tend to infest.

• Food should also be stored correctly on shelving, and in refrigerators and freezer units.
• Crates and boxes should be stacked 70cm away from the wall to prevent rodents getting easy access.
• Kitchen, and front-of-house staff need to be educated on the signs and risks of infestation and should be expected to act responsibly when cleaning the premises and handling food.
• Restaurants should arrange preventative inspections, rather than hiring them reactively.

As more councils sign up to the scheme, scores are becoming more important in attracting business and retaining existing business and, hopefully, raise the general standards of the industry.

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