JUSE and CQI sign collaboration agreement
The Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Providing the basis for future collaboration, CQI CEO, Vince Desmond, said, “There are big opportunities for the quality community to help organisations create new value, especially in the rapidly developing digital and sustainability spaces. However, promoting what the quality community offers, developing new methods, and growing capability in this context is a large undertaking. This agreement provides a basis for the UK and Japan to collaborate and share the load.”
JUSE Managing Director, Masato Onodera, said, “The meeting with CQI was truly significant as we aligned our goals and vision. I’m thrilled about the endless possibilities of spreading Japan’s quality principles and tools worldwide through CQI, reaching Europe and beyond.”
Read more on the CQI website.
Recycling company fined after workers exposed to wood dust
A wood recycling company has been fined after the long-term health of workers was put in danger due to excessive exposure to the dust their work created.
Esken Renewables Limited, a waste and recycling company that specialises in generating biofuel from renewable waste, ran a wood waste recycling centre in Middlesborough that processed mixed wood waste, hardwood and softwood into biofuel.
Breathing in wood dust excessively can cause asthma and nasal cancer. In particular, dust from softwood wood dust is a known asthmagen while particles from hardwood are a known carcinogen.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited the site in April 2022 to investigate the dust exposures on the site. A few weeks earlier, concerns had been raised about wood dust spreading to the surrounding area.
HSE said that its inspector wrote in detail to Esken Renewables with evidence demonstrating the extent of the wood dust exposure to staff, so that the right action could be taken by the company to control the risks.
The company then provided a detailed response, and it was accepted that exposures to the surrounding area was in large part due to four storms in quick succession.
However, the HSE found that the control of wood dust to protect employees working on and around the site was not adequate and fell short of the expected benchmark.
For more on the incident visit the SHP website.
Skip hire and waste recycling company fined after worker is injured
A family run and owned skip hire, waste and recycling business in Scotland has been fined £24,000 after a worker sustained serious injuries to his left hand and forearm on the blades of a machine.
Barry Edward Pae, formerly known as Barry Edward Vaughan, an employee of W M Russell & Sons Limited was injured while he attempted to change the blades of a rapid granulator machine. He sustained serious and irreversible injuries which included complete amputation of his left index, middle and ring fingers, and an open fracture to his left wrist following the incident on 9 April 2021.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to provide a safe system of work for changing the cutter blades. This included a failure to provide sufficient information, instruction, and training on how to isolate the granulator when changing the cutter blades or carrying out other maintenance.
HSE guidance can be found at: Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) (hse.gov.uk)
Visit the HSE website for more on the incident.
Farmer given suspended jail sentence after man killed by cattle
A West Yorkshire farmer has been fined after his cattle trampled a man to death and left his wife paralysed.
Martin Howard Mitchell was given a six-month custodial sentence, which was suspended for 12 months following the incident on a farm in Netherton, Wakefield.
Michael Holmes, 57, had been walking on a public footpath with his wife Teresa and their dogs on 29 September 2020 when they entered a field containing cows and calves on Hollinghurst farm. The farmer had made no attempts to segregate the cows and calves from the footpath and the couple were attacked and trampled by the cattle.
Mr Holmes suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene while his wife sustained life changing injuries that have left her confined to a wheelchair as well as requiring extensive rehabilitation therapy and major adaptations to her home.
Learn more on the SHP website.
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