New publications this month:

HEALTH AND SAFETY EXECUTIVE (HSE)

MSD Assessment Tool

The HSE has launched a body mapping tool to help engagement with workers on musculoskeletal aches or pains that may be caused or made worse by work activities.

Health and safety statistics

The HSE has published its annual health and safety statistics.

Safety Notice: Risk of exposure of laboratory staff to biological agents due to missing clinical information

This notice concerns instances where workers at diagnostic laboratories are being put at risk of infection due to missing information on specimen request forms.

Duty holders should ensure that specimen request forms contain all relevant clinical information, that laboratory staff act on clinical information provided and that record-keeping and IT systems are fit for purpose.

UK REACH: Minimisation of animal testing

This new guidance communicates ways to avoid or minimise animal testing while complying with UK REACH registration duties.

EUROPEAN CHEMICALS AGENCY (ECHA)

ECHA adds one hazardous chemical to the Candidate List

Triphenyl Phosphate has been added to the candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). This substance is used as a flame retardant and plasticiser.

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Building standards technical handbook January 2025: non-domestic

This updated technical handbook will apply to building warrants submitted on or after 1 January 2025 and work that does not require a warrant that commenced on or after this date.

MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY (MCA)

The following notes and notices relevant to occupational health and safety were published or updated in November 2024:

• MGN 599 (M) Amendment 1 Pleasure vessels – regulations and exemptions – guidance and best practice advice
• Safety Bulletin 35 – Lithium storage solutions Ltd – lithium safety store
• Ship security

Glass processor fined after fatal accident

A Ballynahinch-based glass processing company, Glas-Seal (NI) Ltd, has been fined for failing to ensure the safety of its employees.

On 19 May 2022, a large pack of glass, known in industry as an “end-cap”, collapsed and fatally struck a worker. This led to the death of the worker.

An HSENI investigation found that Glas-Seal (NI) Ltd failed to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment for the storage, handling, and processing of large glass packs. Further to this, the company did not have sufficient measures in place to ensure safe storage of the end-caps, which posed a significant hazard. Furthermore, the company failed to ensure that employees were properly trained to manage these risks.

Breach

Glas-Seal (NI) Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Article 4(1) of the Health and Safety Work at Work Order (Northern Ireland) 1978:

• Article 4(1) makes it the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

Penalty

Glas-Seal (NI) Ltd was fined £30,000.

Fines following explosion at an anaerobic digestion plant

A company which produces electricity from food waste by anaerobic digestion, has been fined more after an explosion led to life changing injuries to two employees.

On 20 September 2017, two employees were using a grinder to cut and replace pipework at the top of an 11-metre high metal tank containing waste slurry. They were not using harnesses. Sparks from the grinder ignited flammable gases, causing the tank to explode. The tank the men were working on was projected into the air before crashing to the ground nine seconds later.

One man was flung out of the mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) into the air and landed on the ground in the slurry around the tank. He suffered serious injuries to his back, head and torso and was in hospital for two months. His injuries were so severe that he was not able to work for more than two years. The man suffers from pre and post-traumatic amnesia and has no specific recollection of the events.

The second man was thrown into the air and landed back in the basket of the MEWP. Following the incident, this man’s leg was amputated and he remains wheelchair bound as treatment is still ongoing to receive a prosthesis. Also, he sustained a fractured skull and a piece of metal in his elbow that continues to affect his daily life.

A joint HSE and the Environment Agency investigation found that the company had failed to ensure the health and safety of its employees and others nearby. The company had also kept and treated waste in a manner likely to cause pollution to the environment. The explosion was caused by multiple failures in the company’s management system and exacerbated by multiple breaches of the company’s environmental permit.

Breaches

Bio Dynamic (UK) Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974:

• Section 2(1) applies a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees.
• Section 3(1) applies a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons other than employers are not exposed to risks to their health or safety.

The company also pleaded guilty to breaches of the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Penalty

Bio Dynamic (UK) Limited was fined a total of £304,500 and ordered to pay £229,988 in costs.

Council fined after dog walker was killed by a falling tree

Cheshire East Council has been fined after a man was killed by a falling tree.

On 28 August 2020, the man was walking his dog in The Carrs in Wilmslow, when the large limb of a tree fell and struck him. He received multiple injuries and died at the scene.

An HSE investigation found that when same tree had shed another large limb in September 2019, no investigation was conducted by those responsible to assess whether the tree posed a future safety risk. The council, who controlled the park, did not have a formal overarching tree strategy to manage the risks from trees in public places, and their grounds services contractor, Ansa Environmental Services Limited, had no robust tree management policy.

Organisations who are responsible for trees in areas regularly used by members of the public often adopt a concept called “zoning,” where trees are prioritised for proactive checks based on frequency of public access. HSE guidance is available here.

Breach

Cheshire East Council pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Ansa Environmental Services Limited also pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Penalty

Cheshire East Council was fined £500,000 and ordered to pay £7,284 costs.

Ansa Environmental Services Limited did not receive a separate penalty but was ordered to pay a nominal fine of £500.