Pharmaceutical company fined £100,000 after man sprayed by toxic chemical
A North East pharmaceutical company has been fined for a serious safety breach which left a worker fighting for his life in hospital.
The employee, from Tyne and Wear, was sprayed with seven litres of bromine as he removed cables from a valve connected to pipework at Aesica Pharmaceuticals on the Windmill Industrial Estate, Cramlington, Northumberland. He spent 48 hours in a life-threatening condition after inhaling the corrosive substance and also suffered severe skin burns and damage to one eye.
Newcastle Crown Court heard on the 20 September that in 2007 a bromine bulk storage tank had been taken out of service and prepared for an insurance inspection which included removing short sections of connecting pipework. The removal left the rest of the pipework, including some valves, suspended from a set of flexible bellows which allowed movement in the pipework, but were not designed to be weight-bearing.
The tank failed its insurance inspection and its planned replacement was postponed until 2012. Over the next five years while pipework at one end was disconnected, the other end was still connected to pipework for filling an adjacent tank with bromine, which left it contaminated.
When the worker subsequently removed the cables, the bellows failed releasing the bromine over him. Bromine is classified as potentially fatal if inhaled and can cause severe skin burns. The employee was in hospital for four weeks and continues to receive treatment for his injuries. He has not yet returned to work.
HSE found that the bolts on the bellows were badly corroded increasing the likelihood that they would rupture under any stress. It also identified that a further section of bromine pipework, which could also have become contaminated with bromine, was also inadequately supported.
Aesica Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Q5, Quorum Business Park, Newcastle, was fined £100,000 and ordered to pay £7,803 after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
Fines imposed for asbestos exposure at former factory in Poole
A company in Poole has been fined for safety breaches after exposing workers to potentially fatal asbestos at a disused tile factory in the town.
Poole Investments plc allowed a series of people and workers on to the site in Blandford Road, Poole, despite being aware of the presence of asbestos materials from a survey it commissioned itself.
The Bournemouth Magistrates' Court heard on the 17 September 2013 that the company had agreed to sell redundant plant at the factory site to a local trader. Between October 2010 and the following April the trader unwittingly released asbestos dust and fibres when he demolished part of a disused pottery kiln while removing kiln carts from the site.
In May 2011, Poole Investments commissioned a firm to carry out an asbestos survey but allowed work to take place on site and next to the damaged kiln before the survey was completed in August of that year.
Even after the company received the survey report, which clearly stated asbestos debris was present and that the area should be made out-of-bounds, they allowed workers to continue activities at the premises.
Poole Investments plc, of Anglo Office Park, White Lion Road, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay a further £20,000 in costs after pleading guilty to three breaches of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 as follows:
- Regulation 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states: "Every employer shall not undertake work in demolition, maintenance, or any other work which exposes or is liable to expose his employees to asbestos unless he has carried out a suitable and sufficient assessment as to whether asbestos is present and if there is any doubt he assumes that asbestos is present."
- Regulation 11 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states: "Every employer shall prevent the exposure of employees to asbestos so far as is reasonably practicable."
- Regulation 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states: "Every employer shall prevent or, where this is not reasonably practicable, reduce to the lowest level reasonably practicable the spread of asbestos from any place where work under his control is carried out."
Norwich director gets suspended prison and community service for dangerous electrics
The director of a Norwich giftware manufacturing company has been given a suspended six-month prison sentence and 180 hours of community service for safety failings in relation to electrical systems at the company's premises.
Norwich Crown Court heard on 13 September 2013 that an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had found that Mr Lustig was found to have dangerous electrical installations and equipment in his workplace.
In addition, inspectors told the court that the company and its director, Michael Lustig, had failed to report the fall of an employee despite it being classed as a major incident.
Dorothy Amos, aged 49, had been working at Homenaturals Ltd's manufacturing plant on Burton Close, Norwich, when the incident occurred on 19 December 2011.
She had slipped on a floor strewn with debris from the manufacturing process and sustained a serious leg fracture that has kept her off work ever since.
Mr Lustig was found guilty of breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 in relation to the electrical systems at the manufacturing unit. The prison sentence he received will be suspended for 18 months and he was also disqualified from being a company director for three years.
In addition, both Homenaturals Ltd, of Burton Close, Norwich, and Mikael Lustig in his capacity as sole director of the company, admitted a single breach of Regulation 3(1) (b) of the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. Mr Lustig and the company were fined a total of £300 for failing to report Mrs Amos's fall.
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