New IOSH Leading Safely Open Course
We are excited to reveal the date of our next IOSH ‘Leading Safely’ open course will be Thursday 26th March 2020! Leading Safely is designed to empower employers in making safe and sustainable business decisions. It is recognised by BuildUK as suitable safety training for anyone in Senior Management or a Leadership role. The course is quickly becoming the benchmark course for SSIP schemes and similar; making it more and more necessary for anyone in management or supervisory positions. Not only that, it will keep you up-to-date on HS information as everyone who attends the course is given login details for the IOSH Leading Safely app! The Leading Safely course covers precisely what you need to know to improve productivity, increase profits, enhance corporate reputation and strengthen your brand. As a bonus: the course only lasts half a day, so you don’t have to lose too much work time!
We will be holding an open course in Leamington on Thursday 26th March. The total course cost comes to a great offer of just £150+VAT per person!
If you are interested in this training, places fill up fast and will need to be confirmed by 11th March – so don’t waste time, book your place TODAY by giving us a call or an email HERE!
Emergency First Aid at Work Course
We also have an upcoming ‘Emergency First Aid at Work’ course which will take place on 6th March 2020. This is a 1-day course that has been expertly designed to give professionals a comprehensive overview of all the Health and Safety basics, meaning you can respond quickly and effectively to First Aid concerns. The course costs £125 or £115 if 3 or more employees from the same company book onto the course.
Whether you are an employer looking to refresh your knowledge, or someone seeking to get peace of mind for the future, you can contact WA Management HERE for more information.
Company Fined £700K After Worker Fatally Wounded By Shrapnel
Chesterfield Special Cylinders Ltd has been fined £700,000 for safety breaches after a 64-year-old worker was fatally wounded by shrapnel ejected from testing equipment. On 10th June 2015, John Townsend was leak testing eight 1,500 litre cylinders, by applying compressed air inside to create pressure, at the company’s Sheffield site. Whilst in the process of venting the air through the test manifold, it catastrophically failed and fatally injured Mr Townsend. A HSE investigation revealed that prior to installing the fittings, 1.5 litres of a mineral oil-based corrosion inhibitor had been placed into each of the cylinders. The incident occurred because the inhibitor contaminated the leak test manifold during venting of cylinders and was subjected to enough pressure inside the manifold to ignite and cause the test equipment to fail. The company was found guilty of breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £700,000 with full costs of £169,498.82. After the hearing, HSE Inspector Eddy Tarn commented: “This was a tragic and wholly avoidable incident, caused by the failure of the company to identify any additional risks that arise when work processes are adapted. “Companies should accurately identify and control all potential hazards in the workplace and thereafter monitor performance through effective supervision.”
Read more on the case from SHPOnline.
Untrained Worker Killed During Demolition Work
A construction company has been fined half a million pounds after a father-of-two was killed when a re-enforced concrete slab collapsed underneath him during a demolition project. On 14 April 2014, 33-year-old labourer Dainius Rupsys from Lithuania was working with an excavator operator at the site on Grosvenor Square in London, as part of the operation to demolish the existing multi-storey building before 31 residential flats could be built. Mr Rupsy was using an oxy-propane lance to assist the excavator operator’s efforts when a worker realised their work had made the structure unsafe and the demolition was halted. Nevertheless, the supervisor then ordered the removal of props supporting the remaining slab and less than ten minutes later it collapsed. Mr Rupsys, the 360 excavator and its operator in the cab all fell with the slab. Mr Rupsys suffered severe head injuries and died at the scene, while the excavator operator injured his back.
The HSE’s investigation found that:
- In the weeks before the incident CCTV from overhead cameras showed demolition work had been carried out unsafely;
- Mr Rupsys was not adequately trained to use the oxy-propane lance;
- He had no training on using the safety harness, which was not attached when the incident occurred.
McGee Group Limited (McGee), who was the principal contractor for the project, pleaded guilty to a breach of Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007. The company was fined £500,000 with £66,236,22 in costs.
Read more on the case from SHPOnline.
Malaysia returns 42 containers of ‘illegal’ plastic waste to UK
The Environmental Minister of Malaysia, Yeo Bee Yin, has announced that the country is returning 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the UK. Yeo Bee Yin said Malaysia would take “steps to ensure” the country “does not become the garbage dump of the world”. She added that these were part of the 150 containers Malaysia had sent back to their country of origin. The UK government said it received a request from Malaysian authorities last year to repatriate the waste and some containers had already arrived back. An Environment Agency spokesman said: “We continue to work with the shipping lines and Malaysian authorities to ensure all waste is brought back as soon as possible.” He added the government was also “working hard to stop illegal waste exports from leaving our shores in the first place”. The South-East Asian country has seen a sharp rise in foreign plastic waste since China – once the world’s largest importer – announced a ban in 2017. Malaysia said a total of 3,737 metric tonnes of unwanted waste had been sent back to 13 countries, including 43 containers to France, 42 to the UK, 17 to the United States, and 11 to Canada. The authorities hope to send back another 110 containers by the middle of 2020 – with 60 of those going to the US. Many wealthy countries send their recyclable waste overseas because it is cheap, helps meet recycling targets and reduces domestic landfill. The European Union is the largest exporter of plastic waste, with the US leading as the top exporter for a single country.
Read more on the case from BBC.