Company Exposes 13 Employees and Contractors to Asbestos

We've been reminded of the value of a detailed risk assessment this week after it was revealed SSE Hornsea Ltd allowed 13 employees and contractors to be exposed to asbestos fibres.

Hornsea runs a natural gas storage facility on the East Yorkshire coast and tasked a team of maintenance staff with removing a non-return valve from a compressed air distribution system. In order to remove the sealing gasket material, they fitted a wire brush to an electric drill. That worked, but filled the workshop with dust.

It turns out the dust contained chrysotile (white) asbestos, which 13 people had then come into contact with over the course of two days before the danger was revealed and the workshop closed.

The Health and Safety Executive decided to prosecute SSE Hornsea. Not only had the risk assessment failed to identify the asbestos risk, but the records held regarding the non-return valve were inadequate. Also, the maintenance team leader had not undergone asbestos awareness training.

As well as the potential impact this dust could have on the future health of the 13 exposed people, Hornsea now has to pay a £300,000 fine and £12,670.72 in costs. The company pleaded guilty to breaching Sections 2 (1) and 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc, Act 1974.

It should go without saying: train your staff! We carry out a range of training courses including asbestos awareness. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more or book places.

Source: HSE

Learning Points: Demolition contractor electrical flashover

We have a UK Power Networks Learning points case study to share with you below.

The subject of the case study is "Demolition contractor electrical flashover" and it's applicable to persons involved in demolition activities. Here are the details:

A demolition contractor forced the door of a low voltage circuit breaker cubicle open using a metal crowbar. In doing so, the crowbar went across the terminals of the three phase service and caused a flashover that seriously burnt the individual and set the building on fire.

The factory on this site was redundant, but the 11,000 volt substation and low voltage service on site were live. No request to disconnect the substation and electricity service was made by the property owner when the factory closed down. Power was still being used on the site, but at a reduced level.

The demolition contractor had requested and had been provided a quotation to disconnect the substation and low voltage service, but had not accepted the terms of the contract or paid for the work to be undertaken. They were fully aware that the substation and services were "live."


The impact of this chain of events was the injured person received life-changing burns to his hands and face.

The demolition company who employed the injured person is under investigation by the HSE for breaches of health and safety legislation.

The learning points from this incident are as follows:

• Never assume any electrical plant or cables on a site are dead unless proven so.
• The CDM Regulations require utilities are disconnected prior to demolition commencing.
• The Electricity at Work regulations require employers to adopt safe system of work to ensure electricity plant is safe before work commences on it.

Ridiculous Decision: White asbestos not added to hazardous substances list

I think everyone visiting this website realizes just how dangerous asbestos in any form can be. So you'll be as surprised as we were to learn that white asbestos (Chrysotile) is not being added to the Rotterdam Convention's list of hazardous substances.

In order for a substance to be added to the list, a unanimous decision is required by all countries involved. At a recent meeting in Geneva that unanimity was not reached with Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Zimbabwe, India, and Syria all choosing to vote against adding it. That's despite the recommendation of the scientific community all countries are meant to listen to.

Arthur Frank, a public health scientist at Drexel University in the USA said,

"It is absolutely disgusting that a small number of countries that pedal death and disease to the rest of the world can block over 190 countries wanting to – not ban a product – but label it for what it is: an extremely toxic and dangerous, cancer-causing agent. This is the tyranny of the minority."

Chrysotile was first recommended for the hazardous substances list back in 2006. The fact it still hasn't been added, combined with the decision taken by those countries mentioned above to block it, calls into question the credibility of the Rotterdam Convention for some.

No next meeting of the Rotterdam Convention signatories does not happen until 2019.

Source: SHP

Practicing What We Preach

Continuing professional development is important for any professional person as I am sure we all agree. Equally important, however, is the continued development of the companies they work for.

Here at C&D we take this very seriously and as a result we have just renewed our SMAS certification, which evaluates our Health and Safety systems within our own business. Obviously, as Health and Safety professionals it is highly important that we practice what we preach and it is always nice for others to confirm that this is what we do.

Interestingly, following conversations with our allocated assessor, it would seem that our certification at Principal Designer level is possibly the only, certainly one of the very few, Demolition Consultancies certified at this level. Once again C&D is leading the field.

Please click the certificate below to view it full size:

Fire safety, are you prepared?

Over on our sister site Demolition Training we have an offer on fire assessment, fire procedures manual, and fire warden training with Mike Kehoe.

Please go and check it out.

There's also an excellent video reminding you just how dangerous fire can be if not handled correctly.

80 people die each day from pneumonia

Pneumonia is an infection of the air sacks (alveoli) in the lungs that are responsible for providing the body with oxygen. When the infection takes hold, puss and fluid fill the alveoli and cause oxygen starvation leaving the victim with shortness of breath. The white blood cells then target the infection to try and destroy it causing a painful inflammation of the chest cavity.

Other symptoms include physical and mental effects such as: high fever, chills, high heart rate, joint pain, muscular fatigue, aches, nausea, and vomiting. Unfortunately, 14% of people who contract this infection do not survive, even with medical help. The infection can be contracted a few different ways, but can also be prevented by using the proper breathing equipment.

Wearing a mask saves lives. If you need training in face fitting of masks, or your operatives need face fitting, please contact stuart@demolishdismantle.co.uk now. Prices start from £30.00 per person plus VAT.

The perils of ignoring good advice

The owner of a stone masonry company has recently been successfully prosecuted by the HSE for failing to protect the health of his employees by exposing them to risks likely to cause long term and possibly life changing conditions.

Two major issues were identified:

• Firstly, the company did not provide face masks where necessary and those employees who did have masks were not face fitted correctly or unsuitable because of facial hair.
• Secondly, no risk assessments or health monitoring was done for the use of vibrating tools such as air hammers and as a result two workers were diagnosed with hand-arm vibration syndrome.

If this was not bad enough the owner of the company had previously received advice about these issues from the Health and Safety Executive.

Speaking after the hearing Health and Safety Executive inspector Fiona McGarry said: “Serious irreversible ill health or even death can result from exposure to silica and hand arm vibration syndrome is a permanent disabling condition. Employers need to take action to ensure they are providing adequate control to protect the health of employees.”

So what was the cost of ignoring the HSE advice?

The owner of the company was fined a total of £2,500 and was ordered to pay £1,921.29 in costs after pleading guilty to offences under Regulation 7 (1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 and Regulation 5 (1) and 7 (1) of the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005.

How soft are your hands?

In my youth, “hands that do dishes could be as soft as your face” if you used Fairy washing up liquid. Now whilst this may be the case for a short time, probably more due to the effect of warm water, long term exposure to any type of detergent and/or water will cause skin issues, possibly even Dermatitis. This is not a pleasant condition and should be avoided at all costs, so ensure all workers who have regular exposure to water use gloves that are to the EU Standard EN374-2, which essentially proves that the gloves are waterproof.

But what about other trades and conditions. How do you ensure that you are wearing the right gloves for the job?

There are six standards of protection attributable to gloves which measure the “permeability” of the material they are made from. The lowest level, class 1, will let some substances through in 10 minutes, whilst the highest class 6 ones will last 8 hours.

Also remember the other factors:

• Do they fit properly?
• How long will they be used for?
• Will the task damage them by puncturing or ripping?

Clearly you need to look closely at what gloves are right for the job you are doing.

Further information can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/skin/employ/gloves.htm

5 men injured, 1 dead at Satpura thermal power plant demolition

In a stark reminder of how not every country has the same health and safety system in place as the UK, 5 men have been seriously injured and 1 man killed on a demolition site in a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India.

The 6 men were working as labourers at the Satpura thermal power plant located in Sarani town in Betul district. Demolition is under way there to remove old buildings. However,debris from a tilted conveyor belt fell on the the men, with the man who died, Ramlal Talsa, being just 22 years old.

The blame has been placed on Mumbai-based Sikkim Ferro company who had won the tender for demolishing the buildings. It's unclear what, if anything will happen next. In the UK a thorough investigation, fines, compensation, and prosecutions would be a matter of course.

Source: webindia23

Norland Managed Services and Balfour Beatty fined for contractor's death

Two companies, Norland Managed Services and Balfour Beatty, have been fined a total of £380,000 by the British courts following the electrocution and death of a contractor.

The man in question, 27-year-old cable jointer Martin Walton, was working at the Morgan Stanley data center in London. He accidentally managed to come into contact with a 415V live terminal and died. This happened in 2010, while Walton was employed by Integrated Cable Services Ltd and contracted by Balfour Beatty.

The reason for the death was ruled as a management mistake. The work being carried out involved adding a new uninterruptible power supply to the data center. Norland Managed Services was the company in charge of the mechanical and electrical systems there, control that was handed to Balfour Beatty while the work was carried out.

The HSE, having assessed what caused the accident, found that no one involved understood fully what work was being carried out. This led to Mr Walton working next to a live cable without knowing it was live. This was not the fault of the contractor, but that of the two principal companies involved: Balfour Beatty and Norland.

The fine relates to breaching two sections of the Health and Safety Work Act. Balfour Beatty must pay £280,000 and Norland pays the other £100,000.

Datacenter Dynamics

Plan, Check, Do

“This was an entirely avoidable incident. The risks associated with demolition activity are well known and long standing. Demolition, dismantling and structural alteration are high risk activities which require careful planning and execution by contractors who are competent in the full range of demolition techniques. In this case, demolition using hand tools meant workers were unnecessarily exposed to the risk of structural collapse. It would have been safer to use a long reach excavator, which was subsequently brought in to complete the demolition following the incident. Ultimately, the system of work planned was unsafe, resulting in severe injuries which still affect the worker today.”

This is an interesting quote from an HSE Inspector commenting on an, unfortunately, all too familiar story. We don’t need to know the full details to know that something went seriously wrong, but what makes it interesting is the inspector’s clear indication that the planning process for the work was flawed. The point made was not that there was no planning, but that the system of work in operation was wrong and resulted in the incident. This begs the question, why carry out the correct procedure and planning, without making sure it is an appropriate and safe system of work.

If you’re not sure get it checked. C&D can help with this, our extensive knowledge of demolition engineering from years of experience has helped many companies with just such issues. If you need help get in touch and we will see what we can do together.

Just how risky is construction dust? The IOSH and CITB reveal all

The IOSH and CITB have jointly released a new survey covering the risks of on-site dust and how to control them.

The key findings of the survey are as follows:

- a lack of priority given to this issue by companies
- poor awareness of the risks among workers
- little attempt to design out dust risks
- a poor understanding and use of on-tool extraction
- an over-reliance on respiratory protective equipment as the main form of control
- a lack of awareness about face-fit testing
- inadequate management arrangements to control dust
- poor worker compliance with the arrangements that are in place
- a lack of worker consultation

The 52-page survey entitled "Construction dust" is available to download and read from the CITB website.

Envirocare has also written an excellent article summarising the survey and the controlling of risks on a day-to-day basis. It's well worth your time to read.

Please fill out a short survey and help the HSE

The HSE have been running a campaign about asbestos safety targeted at tradespeople and have asked for your feedback. We would be grateful if you could spare no more than 15 minutes to complete a simple on-line survey.

Your feedback will help HSE understand how effective the campaign has been and how they might make changes to their communications in the future. To complete the survey, just click on the link:

http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p1840409069.aspx?horgan=4

Your feedback will be completely anonymous. Please also forward to other tradespeople, who may have seen the campaign materials, to complete the survey. Responses are requested by 21st May. Thank you.

World Day for Health and Safety at Work today

As the poster states, this day gives you an extra excuse to help raise awareness of health and safety in the workplace as well as remember those who have been injured or even lost their lives while on the job.

The Price of Inexperience and Greed

A sobering reminder that lying to cover mistakes you have made in serious cases does not work.

A young, 23 year old, was on his first day of work for a company when he was told to do a job which ultimately lead to his death. The worker in question was very inexperienced in construction and demolition, with no training and was at his first day of work because the company was short of labour. He was told by the owner to dismantle a chimney on a house they were working on, by using a power tool in one of the houses bedrooms. As a result, and because there was no support structure in place, the chimney collapsed through the roof and trapped the worker below. He died as a result of his injuries.

When interviewed the owner of the building company said that the employee had only been told to sweep up on the site. However the Police did not believe his story as the power tool had been specifically hired for that day. He lied to try and cover his mistakes. In addition, he did not do a risk assessment for the work, did not supply supports such as scaffold or props, or the most sensible option, did not use a cherry picker from outside.

The company owner pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and breaching sections 2 (1) and 3 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act. The sentence is still being deliberated but the judge has warned that the seriousness of the offence and subsequent lying, does merit a custodial sentence.

Special Care on Fragile Roofs

A recent case clearly indicates the procedures that should be implemented to ensure safe working at height and unfortunately, what can go tragically wrong when these are ignored.

A Cumbria based building firm and its owner have both been found guilty of corporate manslaughter following the death of a worker, after he fell nearly 8 metres through a roof on to the concrete floor below. The important message from this tragic incident is that the worker involved did not fall off the roof but rather, he fell through it. More specifically he fell through an unsafe skylight which was clearly designed not to support his weight. The HSE investigation found that the owner of the building firm knew that the skylights were unsafe, but did nothing to prevent the workers walking on them and then falling through.

The company pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter and breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £200,000 and £20,000 respectively. In addition it also received a publicity order to inform people of the case and ordered to pay £31,500 in costs.

The owner of the company also pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Health and Safety and Corporate Manslaughter

There have been a couple of cases, one that we highlighted recently that brings to the fore the issue of Corporate Manslaughter in the case of Health and Safety offences. Doing the job right tells the story of a building company and freelance Health and Safety Advisor who were both found guilty of Manslaughter and have recently been sent to jail for the offences.

On the 3rd February, 2015 a building and joinery firm was sentenced after pleading guilty in December to ‘corporate manslaughter’ and a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to ensure the safety of employees. The company was fined £200,000 for the corporate manslaughter offence, and £20,000 for the Health and Safety breach.

The owner of the company, also pleaded guilty to a breach of the same act and was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, 200 hours unpaid work, a publicity order to advertise what happened on the company website for a set period of time, and to take out a half page spread in the local newspaper and pay costs of £31,504.77.

Clearly the courts are taking these matters very seriously indeed. However, there are other moves in the pipeline which may have even greater consequences. The Sentencing Council has released draft guidelines for the judiciary to place greater emphasis on realistic fines for both Corporate Manslaughter and Health and Safety offences. This could result in the maximum fines for the most serious offences been set at £20 million for Corporate Manslaughter and £10 million for Health and Safety.

The Right Tools for the Job

We all know that just about any job in the world can be done with a screwdriver and if not then the infamous Brummie screwdriver normally does the trick. That’s a hammer for those not from around here! In all seriousness though, a case bought to court recently by the Health and Safety Executive highlight the importance of why using the right tool for the job is so important and why using the wrong one can have serious consequences.

On January 12th Swindon magistrates heard how a construction company worker suffered a broken back whilst installing fencing on the Longleat Estate in Warminster. Despite the Method Statement stipulating the use of a post driver, and one being on its way to site, fence posts were being installed by using a digger bucket to push them into the ground. Whilst the employee in question was holding one of these posts, the top split and the bucket jumped sideways hitting him in the shoulder and causing a broken vertebrae. He spent over a week in hospital and is still in pain.

An HSE spokesman said “Workers have a right to expect that the equipment they use is appropriate for the task – on this occasion the equipment used was clearly not suitable for the job.”

As a result of this incident the company involved was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,117 after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

C&D Consultancy take the CIWM pledge

CIWM have been promoting their Health, Safety & Welfare Pledge to "Stay Safe, Save Lives" so here at C&D we have decided to get involved and sign the pledge ourselves.

By signing we have committed to take action and make a difference in all that we do.

Why not take a look at the CIWM website and take the pledge yourselves.

Stuart Pearce believes he may get lung cancer because of asbestos exposure

Stuart Pearce is well known to most Brits as a former member of the England football team, but before turning professional he was in fact an electrician. He spent 4 years in the trade working for Brent council in London, but those four years have since filled him with great concern.

At the time, he was not told of the dangers of asbestos to his long term health, and he knows that his chance of exposure to asbestos at work and without safety equipment is very high while he was an apprentice. Understandably, he's a supporter of the HSE campaign to ensure everyone is aware of the substance's dangers.

Book an asbestos awareness course now as awareness training could save your life.

Source: Mirror and Austin Osuide for the image.