Category: Health and Safety

£750,000 fine for ‘reckless’ asbestos failure Some 200 workers were put at risk to the exposure of asbestos during the early demolition phase of a project, resulting in a £750,000 fine for a construction firm. The HSE carried out two investigations of working practices at a site in 2013 and 2014 while Barroerock Construction Limited […]

Tesla recalls 53,000 cars over brake issue Tesla has issued a voluntary global recall for some of its Model S and Model X cars to fix a problem with the parking brake. The electric car maker said about 2% of the 53,000 vehicles built from February to October 2016 were affected, but all of those […]

Suspended Jail Sentence For Construction Worker With ‘Staggering Disregard For Personal Safety’ A steel erector has received a suspended jail term after a member of the public photographed him balancing on scaffold tubes about 27 m off the ground and alerted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Manchester Magistrates’ Court was told that David Mullholland, […]

University Fined £400k After Experiment Nearly Kills Students The University of Northumbria at Newcastle has been fined after two students fell seriously ill after a miscalculation in an experiment led to them being admitted to intensive care and requiring dialysis. Newcastle Crown Court heard how students were learning about the effects of caffeine as part of […]

Look, No Hands If warm words from governments were all that was needed to fuel driverless vehicles they might be all around us. Following the launch in Britain of the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) in 2015, this September a new inquiry under the House of Lords’ Science and Technology Committee was announced. […]

Risk of harm, rather than simply harm itself, is increasingly the crucial factor on which the HSE and the courts are coming down hard. Recent court decisions applying the Sentencing Council Definitive Guideline for Health and Safety Offences, Corporate Manslaughter and Food Safety and Hygiene Offences have highlighted that H&S offences are concerned with failures […]

Watchdogs have banned a TV commercial for Heinz Baked Beans on health and safety grounds. The advert showed youngsters and adults tapping out the complex rhythms of a song on empty cans. Heinz fell foul of the Advertising Standards Authority because it failed to show the top of the can being taped up to cover […]

Weil’s disease, caused by Leptospira bacteria, and spread by rodents, is debilitating or even fatal in 10% of cases. Darren Williamson, Product & Procurement Manager for Arco, explains the dangers of the bacteria within construction and how workers can combat the infection using specially formulated hand wipes and solutions. Those who come into contact with […]

Over the years I have met several training delegates and auditees who told me a similar story:  “Our safety department won’t let us reduce the severity rating on risk assessments”. These people worked in a host of different industries:  Construction, rail, manufacturing and the public sector.  They were using risk assessment methodologies that required them […]

The Most Dangerous Job In The UK If asked to name a dangerous way of earning a living, most people would probably opt for the construction industry.  This would be borne out by figures published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for workplace fatal injury rates for 2015/16, which show that the 43 deaths […]