Welcome to the new and free Newsletter

Each quarter we will produce and distribute to you “free of charge” items of interest in the field of safety.

I hope it proves useful to you, your staff and your business.

The newsletter will have regular informative items such as;

Statistics, Law Changes and Up-dates, Fines Section, Environmental Issues, HSE news, Training Up-date

Statistics

Accident statistics for the year April 08 to March 09 show that the construction industry’s death toll to the end of March was 55 workers and two members of the public killed in construction-related incidents.
In 2007-08, 36 million working days were lost to ill health.

In the workplace in general there were 229 deaths in 2007-08 with over 136,000 people actually being injured.

Law

Corporate manslaughter charge.

Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings appeared before Stroud magistrates during the summer to answer several charges brought by the CPS including Corporate Manslaughter. The current way of paying fines and costs is linked to the company’s ability to pay.

Phones and driving

A mobile phone while driving makes you four times more likely to crash. 100,000 drivers are still using a hand-held mobile phone, despite the fact that two-thirds of UK drivers expect to go to jail if they cause a fatal accident while on the phone. Turn phones off whilst driving.

One in five construction sites fail health and safety checks

One in five construction sites failed health and safety checks during the latest national inspection initiative carried out by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Inspectors from Britain’s workplace regulator visited 1759 refurbishment sites during March and checked on how 2145 contractors were complying with health and safety regulations.

On 348 sites sufficiently serious risks were discovered to warrant enforcement action being taken – either stopping work immediately or ordering improvements to be made.

• Sites were well organised to avoid trips and falls
• Walkways and stairs were free from obstructions
• Work areas were clear on unnecessary materials and waste
• The risks associated with exposure to asbestos were managed and carried out correctly
• The work force were made aware of risk control measures.

Crane Register 2010

Due to the recent high profile crane incidents and tradegies, the government has announced that there will be a tower crane register in place by April 2010. This means that every tower crane operating in the British Isles will be listed, tracked and monitored. This will also include the improvements in the competence of all dealing with the tower crane industry. The full details of how the register will be implemented have yet to be finalised but the government has now realised this is an important issue that needs addressing.

First Aid at Work Regulations

The new regs will be out on 1st October. Basically they consist of;

• The appointed person will disappear and be replaced by the Emergency First Aid at Work course. This will last 1 day and enable a first aider to give first aid to someone that is injured or becomes ill at work.
• The 4 day First Aid at Work course will become a 3 day course.
• It is recommended by the HSE that a half day refresher course be taken in each of the 3 year duration of both courses. Both courses will have to be regulated by the HSE so ensuring all training providers are competent to deliver the course. At the moment the Appointed Person course is not regulated by the HSE. The new regs will be backed up with a new Approved Code of Practise.

Some recent prosecutions

06 / 08. Fall from height – worker fell 6 metres and suffered brain damage and multiple fractures. He has still not returned to work.

07 / 08. Welding explosion – poor equipment failure led to several months off work for the injured person.

04 / 08. 13 year old girl nearly strangled whilst go karting. Her scarf got entangled in the kart and pulled against her throat. 3 days in hospital and permanent scarring to her neck.

06 / 05. Worker killed by a roll of paper….but it did weigh 1 tonne! Crush injuries to chest.

12 / 07. Man killed a work colleague sentenced to 18 months in prison. Basically he was driving a 20 tonne Truck that was overloaded with timber so he did not have full vision. The deceased some how walked in front of the moving load and….the deceased was also a well known friend of the driver.

02 / 07. Mis managed loading operation led to leg amputation. Due to high winds, the normal lorry did not deliver the panels. The injured person had to access the lorry and the panels fell onto his leg.

02 / 06. Man died after he crawled in to a faulty machine to clear a jam. The machine restarted and he was pinned down with 165 kg force on his chest.

Scaffolder died from electrocution after he touched an unearthed light casing which was on a wall close to where he was erecting a scaffold.

05 / 08. Falling scaffold pole injures a passer by. A guard rail slipped and fell 5 metres.

Lifting operation went wrong. Man killed by falling excavator bucket as they tried to move 4 buckets that they had chained and rebarred together.

CSCS – CBH Merger

The CSCS and Constructing Better Health organisations are to merge. It is not fully known as to why this happening but it is guessed that it is due to a lowering of funding due to the down turn in works. The organisations will continue to run in their current formats focusing on increasing work force competency and improving the health as well as safety of the work force.

Environmental

You may or may not be aware that on the 1st March of this year a new set of Environmental legislation came into force.

The Environmental Damage (Prevention and remediation) regulations 2009 implement the environmental liability directive and introduce significant changes to the environmental legislative framework.

They cover a wide area of environmental damage caused by ANY economic activity – public or private – and whether or not carried out for profit. They encompass protected species, natural habitats, sites of special scientific interest, surface or ground water and land.

The reporting of environmental contamination to the Environment agency or local authorities is being encouraged to take place on a more frequent basis.

Training Update

 

HSE Website – www.hse.gov.uk - Has recently had a revamp. The home page is now laid out differently and certain parts of the site such as Asbestos, Waste, First Aid and RIDDOR have all been improved. I have explained to you before that this is a very useful and educational site……

RBS QUIZ

WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF FIRST AIDERS NEEDED IN A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS EMPLOYNG 37 PEOPLE?

A 1
B 3
C 7

Please keep up to date by looking at our site weekly. If this news letter has raised any issues for you or if you have a specific question about Health and Safety, then get in touch and we will be only too happy to help.

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