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Number 391 - 31 January 2009
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Risks is the TUC's weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 16,000 subscribers and 1,500 on the TUC website. To receive this bulletin every week, click here. Past issues are available. This edition contains Useful links TUC courses for safety reps Disclaimer and Privacy
Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to the TUC at healthandsafety@tuc.org.uk
Union News
Alarm over sea breath test plans
Seafarers' union Nautilus UK has warned that international drug and alcohol testing proposals could turn shipmasters into 'onboard police officers' carrying out the tests. The concerns, raised jointly with industry organisation the Chamber of Shipping, were prompted by proposals tabled at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The proposals are in paper tabled by German delegates as part of the IMO's review of the Standards of Training and Watchkeeping Convention and Code. They include the introduction of mandatory requirements to combat drug and alcohol abuse, setting a blood alcohol content limit of just 0.05 per cent - well below the existing non-mandatory level of 0.08 per cent. In a letter to the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the union and the Chamber of Shipping warn that no justification has been given for the tougher limit, adding it would be very difficult to enforce. The two organisations expressed particular concern at plans to make shipmasters responsible for enforcing what will become a provision of a flag state's criminal law - having to randomly breathalyse their crew members. 'It is one thing for a master to supervise alcohol testing under a company policy - particularly following an accident or where there is reasonable cause - but quite another to enforce the laws of a flag state requiring random testing,' the joint letter says. 'The implications of such a practice for staff relations and shipboard discipline - and indeed for shipboard safety - could be very serious.' The letter warns that random testing is expensive, requires a chain of custody and is not appropriate in all circumstances. The paper will be considered next week at IMO's February meeting.
Unions oppose dangerous rail cuts
Rail unions have warned that cutting rail industry jobs to save cash would jeopardise services and safety. The unions have urged the government to use its financial control over the industry to impose a moratorium on cuts in jobs, services and infrastructure maintenance and renewal. In a letter to transport secretary Geoff Hoon, RMT, TSSA and ASLEF also call for a freeze on dividends, with profits instead invested to protect services and jobs. ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said: 'Network Rail's proposal to impose huge cuts in track renewals and maintenance threatens to jeopardise the safety of the rail network. To play with passenger safety in such a way is nothing short of blackmail, but the government has the power to stop these cuts and it should do so.' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: 'Britain's railways are a core industry that is too valuable to the economy and the environment to allow it to be vandalised for selfish short-term interests. The government has pledged to fight the recession with investment in public projects, and it should not allow itself to be used to subsidise redundancies in a key service whose purse strings it controls.' Gerry Doherty, general secretary of TSSA, said: 'Passengers paid through the nose to ensure record profits for the rail companies during the boom. Now they want passengers and staff to pay for the bust with worse services and fewer jobs.' The letter to the transport secretary warns it is 'vital to draw your attention to the fact that again in the name of efficiency savings Network Rail are cutting the frequency of track inspections and routine signals maintenance. We are now deeply concerned that combined with the reduction in renewals work the cumulative effect will be to significantly raise safety risks to passengers and workers. We fear conditions are being created which could lead to another Hatfield, Potters Bar or Grayrigg.'
Union warning on vehicle safety
The closure of three vehicle testing centres could jeopardise road safety, a union has warned. Prospect members in the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) have expressed fears that the announcement that three of the agency's testing stations are to close is the start of a wider programme to move operations into private facilities. They say this 'could damage the agency's strategic capacity to test.' The union's comments follow news that VOSA's stations in St Austell, Steeton and Bredbury are to be shut down under government plans to reform the service. Prospect negotiator Helen Stevens said: 'Our members readily acknowledge that VOSA's existing network needs to be upgraded and better located, but fear that this is the start of a cost-saving exercise designed to shed VOSA estate rather than improve access to facilities. These plans could ultimately damage the agency's strategic capacity to test.' She added: 'Increased reliance on privately-owned testing facilities will force heavy vehicle operators to travel greater distances to find an approved site or use those owned by their competitors, both of which could act as deterrents. Given the current economic climate and the increasing number of businesses going to the wall, you also have to question whether now is the right time to look to private premises to provide the facilities for essential safety testing.' VOSA said the latest stage of its 'modernisation agenda' would 'lead to the creation of a more efficient and customer-focused service for the testing of buses, coaches and lorries operating in the 21st century.' Chief operating officer Alex Fiddes said: 'The closures are the start of a programme looking at transforming VOSA's testing operations. VOSA will continue to discuss proposals for change with the trade and its customers.'
Warning on pilot fatigue risks
The 38,000 airline pilots in the European Union are demanding that the recommendations from a scientific team investigating pilot fatigue should be adopted as soon as possible. The report found pilots are flying dangerously long hours without adequate breaks. Commenting the conclusions of the independent scientific study released last week by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), pilots' union BALPA general secretary Jim McAuslan said: 'It will be up to European institutions to revise flight time limitations laws without delay in order to avoid the risk of fatigue contributing to accidents and incidents.' He added: 'I am writing to the secretary of state for transport, Geoff Hoon, to ask the British government to get behind the recommendations and see that they are adopted.' The union leader raised concerns about pressure for Britain to adopt lower EU standards. Mr McAuslan said: 'I shall ask Geoff Hoon whether we are in Europe to gravitate together to the highest standards or to the lowest. The independent report gives us a great opportunity to establish a baseline from which we can develop the highest possible standards across Europe.' He concluded: 'European passengers and crews have the right to benefit from scientifically based safety standards. And European regulations must ensure that crews are fit to operate and free from fatigue.'
Safety call on cash van crime
Security union GMB is stepping up its campaign to tackle 'horrendous attacks' on workers in the sector. A conference organised this week by the union brought together senior security industry managers and police officers, a Home Office minister and senior officers from GMB. GMB national officer Jude Brimble told the conference: 'GMB welcomes this conference as a step up in the co-operation between all the agencies in tackling these horrendous attacks. We all need to do a lot more to stop GMB members who work in the security industry being injured and killed at work during these attacks.' The union officer said: 'GMB's starting point is that it will not be possible to eliminate the desire on the part of criminals to get their hands on the cash being transported by GMB members. GMB have to put in place a system that makes it all but impossible for them to do so and to get away with it. That means a 360 degree solution.' She explained: 'Where possible we need to engineer the cash in transit system so that there are no opportunities for criminals to get near the cash. Where this is not possible, we need to make it as difficult as possible to carry out attacks, and where attacks are carried out we need to ensure that there is 100 per cent chance of the criminals being identified and caught.' She said the courts must deal 'robustly' with offenders and local authorities must allow cash vans close access to delivery points.
Asbestos death payout on the deadline
A widow and her children have received compensation for an asbestos-related death after applying one day before the three-year deadline. UNISON helped recover £170,000 for the family of Roger Blackman, who died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma five weeks after he was diagnosed. His widow, Sandra Blackman, decided to pursue a claim three years after his death, having read about another victim who had worked for the same firm. Compensation claims in fatal cases must be brought within three years from the date of death. Mrs Blackman sought advice just one day before the time limit expired. She said: 'Roger's death was so quick that I didn't even want to think about pursuing compensation at the time. When I read about another man who had worked for the same firm and had the same disease I felt I owed it to Roger to look into it.' Roger had been employed as a carpenter for G E Wallis & Son in Maidstone, Kent during the 1960s. UNISON South regional secretary Phil Wood said: 'Mr Blackman was exposed to asbestos when doing a hard day's work. The employers put his health and safety in jeopardy by exposing him to asbestos at a time when they knew, or ought to have known, about the dangers.'
Other news
Warning on schools asbestos risk
Most state school buildings in south-east England contain asbestos, a BBC investigation has revealed. Freedom of information requests by the BBC's Inside Out programme found out the material remains in more than 90 per cent of schools. Union concerns about the health risks to pupils and schools staff, and that have led to calls for all schools to be properly surveyed and for the asbestos to be removed, appear to be borne out by statistics on asbestos-related cancers. Dr Robin Howie, an independent asbestos consultant, said the number of teachers dying of asbestos-related diseases in the UK had risen from about one every two years to more than five a year. He said: 'We are looking at a substantially higher number of mesothelioma deaths in teachers than we would expect. What it means is that teacher mesotheliomas are important because they are the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg is the mesotheliomas in children.'
Widower's search for bank workmates
The family of a cancer victim is urging her former work colleagues to come forward with information about her exposure to asbestos. Bank worker Jill Bird, 63, died in November last year just weeks after she was diagnosed with the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma. She was employed as a cashier with Lloyds TSB from 1961 until 2004. Her family contacted personal injury law firm Thompsons Solicitors after learning that she may have been exposed to asbestos while working at the Lloyds TSB George Street branch in Luton. Before she died Jill discovered her former workmate Nicki Hopper was also suffering from the disease and wanted to find out more about how they were exposed to asbestos. Her husband Bryan Bird said: 'It was a horrendous shock when we found out that Jill was suffering from mesothelioma. The doctors kept asking if she knew where she had been exposed to asbestos. It wasn't until Jill discovered Nicki was also suffering from the same disease that she remembered that there was asbestos in the premises where they both used to work.' The family's legal adviser, Ann-Marie Christie, said: 'It is important that we trace Jill Bird's former workmates so we can build up an accurate description of her working conditions.'
- Thompsons Solicitors news release. Anyone with relevant information should contact Ann-Marie Christie on 08000 224 224.
Low asbestos fine 'no deterrent' - HSE
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector has said he is 'devastated' that a heating firm responsible for negligently exposing workers to asbestos for several days was only fined £8,000. HSE principal construction inspector Jim Skilling said the penalty given to Lothian Heating Services Ltd (LHS) after three workers were exposed was 'no deterrent at all'. He added that HSE had recommended prosecution of the firm over previous work, although past charges against LHS were dropped. LHS failed to spot the deadly substance at St Teresa's RC Church in Edinburgh before sending Craig Cumming, Stephen Smith and John Thomson to replace a decrepit heating system in May 2007. The firm was fined £8,000 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last week after admitting a breach of health and safety laws. HSE's Jim Skilling said fines must be bigger if they are to deter future breaches. 'I'm devastated at the size of the fine; it does not send a deterrent to anybody,' he said, adding: 'A number of years ago there was an asbestos problem and an HSE report recommended prosecution. The other person involved was held to be more liable and LHS walked off with a clean record. We have previously advised this company and they have not taken that advice. The same director was involved and they obviously haven't learned their lesson - I'm really unhappy about this.' He said: 'This was a very serious case, a shocking case and we haven't come out with the right result.' The three men worked in an asbestos-contaminated area for five days with no protection. Sheriff Maciver said LHS had co-operated throughout the investigation and deserved a discount on the sentence as a result. He fined LHS £8,000, reduced from £12,000.
Family's 'disgust' at teen death fine
The mother of a teenage ground worker killed in a farm machine has branded the £7,500 fine handed to his bosses as 'disgusting.' Father and son Roy and Michael Hill were convicted of health and safety breaches following the death of 17-year-old Lee Mason in April 2007. Bristol Crown Court heard Lee was working on a farm at RE Hill and Son in Dundry when he became snagged by a roller of a diesel powered soil sifter and was pulled towards it, crushing his neck. Business owner Roy Hill, 66 - who was jailed in 1996 for breaking asbestos laws - and manager Michael Hill, 32, were cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence but found guilty of failing to provide the teen with proper training and supervision. Mr Hill senior, of Bristol, was fined £5,000 and £1,500 costs, and Michael Hill was fined £2,500 and £500 costs. The judge, Mr Justice Jack, told the court Lee had become trapped when he was working alone after someone unknown had removed a vital safety guard. He told the court: 'There was not a sufficient emphasis on safety in the running of the business. The system was lacking and checks were not made.' Lee's mother, 41-year-old Jenny Mason, commented: 'I am disgusted and I think the health and safety people have been treated disgustingly. I thought it would be a bigger fine to deter other people. Now people will think it doesn't matter if you haven't got a safety guard on your machine because you won't get done for it.' In 1996, Roy Hill was sentenced to three months' prison after breaching health and safety laws on asbestos, during demolition work in Bristol.
Boss jailed for roof death plunge
A roofing firm boss has been jailed for 12 months for manslaughter due to gross negligence after a 20-year-old employee fell 20ft (6m) through a skylight. Colin Cooper, 48, and his company IC Roofing Ltd were convicted over the death of Darren Hoofe in 2005. At Hove Crown Court Judge Anthony Scott-Gall described it as a 'wholly avoidable and preventable accident.' Cooper was also disqualified from being a company director for three years, after earlier pleading guilty to offences under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. IC Roofing Ltd, an industrial roofing and sheet metal contractor based in Hailsham, was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 costs. During the 13-day hearing, the court heard Mr Hoofe did not have a harness and there was no safety net. He died in hospital a day after falling through the skylight onto a concrete factory floor on 29 November 2005. The judge said Mr Hoofe was 'wholly untrained to work at height,' not supervised at the 'critical time,' and 'provided with inadequate and insufficient materials to do the work safely.' Sussex Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) undertook the investigation into the circumstances of Mr Hoofe's death. HSE inspector Amanda Huff said: 'The tragedy of Darren Hoofe's death is that it could so easily have been avoided. Colin Cooper showed reckless disregard for the safety of his employees even though the risks and necessary precautions were well known to him.' Detective Inspector Colin Dowle, from Sussex Police, said: 'This is a particularly tragic event which was entirely preventable. Colin Cooper ignored the obvious risks in favour of economic gain, sadly at the cost of Darren's life. This was compounded by the fact that Mr Cooper had received previous warnings in relation to his working practices from HSE inspectors. The HSE and Sussex Police have worked closely together to bring this matter to trial.'
- HSE news release. Sussex Express. Eastbourne Today. BBC News Online. Construction News. Contract Journal. Building.
Five figure fine for fork lift fatality
A firm has been fined £10,000 after an employee died when a container of dye crushed him during an unloading operation. Cheshire-based Townley Dyestuffs Ltd was also ordered to pay £6.963.25 costs after pleading guilty to safety offences. The court heard that the incident happened on 24 August 2005 when a 1.1 ton container of dye slid off the front of the forks of a forklift truck, crushing employee Mark Kiveal, 38. Two containers had successfully been emptied before the third slipped. Health and Safety Executive inspector Richard Clarke said: 'This was a tragic accident that could have been prevented had a safe system of work been in place. The container had a specialist mechanism for emptying it, but an improvised method was used when the incident happened.' He added: 'Two containers had successfully been opened and an attempt to unload the third was taking place when it slid off the front forks of the truck and tragically crushed Mr Kiveal. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that the right equipment is used for the job and to ensure that loads are safely secured. That wasn't the case in this incident, which sadly led to the loss of a man's life.'
Man fined for worker's fall injuries
A Swansea man has been fined £10,000 after a worker was seriously injured in a fall at work. Principal contractor Arthur David Fletcher was also ordered to pay costs of £6,257.40 after pleading guilty at Swansea Magistrates' Court to a safety offence. Fletcher, who was responsible for a construction site for a new supermarket and accommodation, employed Dorian Skippon to undertake construction work. On 30 June 2006, Mr Skippon was working with three others on construction of a temporary floor when a joist collapsed. He fell two and a half metres onto the floor below, resulting in serious leg injuries. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector Anne-Marie Orrells said Mr Skippon is still experiencing the effects of his injuries more than two years later. 'There were a number of serious failings which led to this incident. The risks of working at height were not properly identified or addressed, and no fall protection was provided for workers,' she added: 'Despite this incident, an unannounced inspection by HSE just over a month later showed that there was still a failure to manage risks from working at height, including an absence of guard rails on scaffolding, poor access from the building to external scaffolding and unprotected openings which were large enough for workers to fall through.'
HSE told to consider a cranes register
The government is reconsidering its decision last year not to introduce a national tower cranes register. Campaign groups, construction unions and the Work and Pensions Select Committee had all called for a register, after a spate of crane related fatalities. The government's July 2008 response to the Select Committee's report, however, rejected the call (Risks 363). Now James Purnell, secretary of state at the Department of Work and Pensions, has indicated he is considering a register of tower cranes and has tasked the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with drawing up the arguments for and against such a move. A report in Contract Journal says the construction industry's Strategic Forum plant safety group will help HSE identify key factors.
Novice burned by molten zinc
A Worksop firm has been fined £7,000 after an inexperienced employee was splashed with molten metal, suffering serious burns. Worksop Galvanizing was also ordered to pay costs of £4,465 after pleading guilty to a breach of safety law. Peter Allen, 37, was on his third shift at the factory when wires holding a beam being lowered into a bath of molten zinc broke. One end of the beam fell into the bath - the biggest in Europe at 21m long, 1.5m wide and 2.7m deep - and splashed zinc over him. His body and face were badly burnt and his eyesight has still not recovered. Investigations revealed that the company was relying on workers selecting the strength of wire to use based on an estimate of a beam's weight. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector David Butter commented: 'Working safely isn't just about protective equipment, it's about every worker being trained to do their job with minimum risk. Experience told Mr Allen's colleagues to get out of the way fast when the wire broke, but he was too inexperienced to realise what was happening quickly enough and was badly burnt.' The inspector added: 'Workers were also deciding what strength of wire to use purely by estimating, and in this case didn't use different strengths to take into account that the beam was heavier at one end than the other. Worksop Galvanizing is now weighing and assessing beams properly, and HSE is updating its formal advice to the industry to promote this as best practice.'
Concrete digger cable strike warning
A Rochdale company has been fined £1,000 after a worker suffered burns when a concrete digger hit a live electrical cable. Trains (Rochdale) Limited was also ordered to pay costs of £2,000 at Trafford Magistrates Court after being found guilty of breaching the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989. On 8 August 2007 an employee was operating the mechanical breaker to smash concrete while attempting to install a post and rail fence around a car park owned by Trains (Rochdale) Limited. The machine struck a buried live electrical cable, with the operator receiving burns to his left hand and arm. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigating inspector Rosemary Leese-Weller said: 'This incident was easily avoidable. The employer had failed to provide plans of underground electrical cables and did not carry out scans of the area to locate any buried services.' She added: 'If the company had simply provided the plans, undertaken the scans and located the cable, digging in the area could have been avoided and this incident would never have occurred.' The HSE investigation showed that Trains (Rochdale) Limited failed to provide the employee with a copy of service plans, nor did it carry out a scan of the area which would have identified underground electrical cables.
International News
Canada: World's first nanotech law due
The Canadian government is planning to release the world's first national regulation requiring companies to detail their use of engineered nanomaterials, reports say. The information gathered under the requirement, which it is thought will be published in February, will be used to evaluate the risks of engineered nanomaterials and will help the development of appropriate safety measures to protect human health and the environment. Andrew Maynard, a nanotech safety expert from the US-based Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), commented: 'People and the environment are being increasingly exposed to new nanomaterials. Yet governments lack information on the type, quantity and possible risks of nanoscale materials being manufactured and used in products today. This is information that is vital to ensuring the safe use of nanotechnology.' Maynard, PEN's chief science adviser, added: 'This decision by Canada - to establish the world's first national mandatory nanoscale materials reporting programme for companies - is an important step toward ensuring that nanotechnology regulation is driven by accurate information and high-quality science.' Canada's action comes after a series of international reports highlighted major deficiencies in the health and safety oversight and control of nanotechnologies (Risks 387). Unions in the UK, US, Australia and Holland have called for the precautionary principle to be applied to nanotech use while uncertainty remains on the potential health effects.
Europe: Chemical firms start REACH attack
Four chemical firms are challenging in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) new European-wide chemical registration and control rules. The case, which started this week, aims to get some requirements of the regulations annulled. The regulations cannot be challenged directly in the ECJ, so the firms are attempting a back door challenge. Four firms - UK based Lake Chemicals and Minerals Limited, SPCM from France, CH Erbslöh KG from Germany and US-based Hercules - issued proceedings against the UK government's environment department (Defra) to force a referral by the UK's High Court to the ECJ for preliminary rulings on three questions, one of which the court agreed to refer to the ECJ. The European court will now examine the firms' bid to have, in certain circumstances, monomers - the basic building blocks of plastics - excluded from the REACH registration requirements, saying the requirement is irrational, discriminatory or disproportionate. These monomers include some of the most notorious workplace chemicals around, including the potent carcinogen used in the manufacture of the polymer PVC, vinyl chloride monomer. Other highly toxic monomers used in the manufacture of polymers include styrene, acrylamide and butadiene. The industry lobby has already succeeded in having polymers excluded from the REACH registration requirement. According to the European trade union health and safety thinktank, HESA, the industry is making a spurious distinction about 'reacted monomers', which it says should not be covered. HESA says this difference 'is irrelevant to health and safety at work, because their toxicity as monomers can expose production workers to risks.'
Italy: National strike over docks deaths
Dockers' unions held a national one-day strike across Italy on 23 January in protest over poor workplace safety, which has led to a series of deaths in the country's ports. The action was called by Italy's major port unions, Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti. In a joint statement ahead of the strike, the unions said: 'It is now clear that we face a genuine emergency in terms of workplace safety in the ports.' They added: 'There are precise causes for such accidents, related to workplace safety measures that have long been promised but never delivered.' The unions are calling for a meeting with government representatives to discuss measures to improve safety, including the introduction of proper training programmes. Frank Leys of ITF, the global transport unions' federation to which all three unions are affiliated, commented: 'There is a need for a zero tolerance approach to unsafe working practices and conditions on the wharfs and terminals. National legislation and international conventions have a key role to play - countries must ratify and implement International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention 152 and the code of practice on safety and health in ports.' He added: 'The ITF and its European arm, the ETF, will continue to work with international bodies such as the ILO and the International Maritime Organisation, and the global port operators to make ports safer.'
USA: Work disease system favours business
A US man who believes workplace solvent exposure left him struggling with Parkinson's Disease is fighting a second battle, this time for compensation. Ed Abney worked at a former Dresser Industries plant in Kentucky for over 20 years, often elbow deep in the solvent trichloroethylene, used to clean metal piping. Ed, now 53, was diagnosed with the disease in 2001, but says he began feeling the symptoms back in the summer of 1996. A 2008 University of Kentucky study linked exposures to the solvent in his workplace to Parkinson's disease. The study had focused on him and co-workers who worked near the same 55-gallon drum of the sweet-smelling chemical. It found that 27 workers had either the anxiety, tremors, rigidity or other symptoms associated with Parkinson's, or had motor skills that were significantly impaired, compared with a healthy peer group. The Abney's thought the study, which seemed to prove what they had been saying for years, would be the scientific evidence they had been praying for to claim workers' compensation benefits. But the University of Kentucky researchers would not sign the paperwork confirming that Abney's disease was linked to his job. 'This doesn't mean we are going to stop fighting,' said Susan. 'This isn't about money, it's about holding someone responsible for something that should have never happened in the first place.' The Abney's attorney says the family doesn't have much of a case in a court of law without the researchers attesting there is a connection. 'Maybe someday, there will be enough evidence to prove why I'm sick and why so many of my other former co-workers are dealing with similar problems,' Ed went on to say. Recently, Abney's former supervisor at the plant lost his fight to the disease. E Donald Elliott, a Yale Law School professor specialising in these cases, said that simply being exposed to a risk in the workplace 'should in itself be a compensable injury.' He added: 'From a policy standpoint, does it make sense for the entire burden of uncertainty or unknown science to fall on the injured parties rather than falling on the business or industry involved?'
- WKYT 27 News First. New York Times. Workers' Comp Insider.
- Don M Gash and others. Trichloroethylene: Parkinsonism and complex 1 mitochondrial neurotoxicity, Annals of Neurology, volume 63, issue 2, pages 184-192, February 2008 [abstract].
Events and Courses
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COURSES FOR JANUARY TO MARCH 2009
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Newsletter (5,300 words) issued 30 Jan 2009
