Pigeons recognise Human Faces
Recent research in Paris has shown that wild pigeons can recognise people that have previously fed them (or chased them away).
Corporate Manslaughter for Deaths in Custody
From 1st September the custody environments of the Ministry of Defence and the UK Border Agency are no longer exempt from Corporate Manslaughter legislation. The police and prison services have always been liable under the Act but, for some reason, Parliament felt it appropriate to allow MoD and Customs an extra three years to comply. Readers will, no doubt, be delighted to hear that this is compatible with the Convention on Human Rights and does not require a full Impact Assessment.
Is this Health & Safety?
A housing association has banned a tenant from putting a doormat outside his front door because someone may trip over it in a fire evacuation. His front door is at the end of a corridor so the only people that could possibly trip are the flat occupiers.
Recent Cases
£2,300 fine and £1,400 costs for the sandwich bar that was offering cooked chicken for sale two days after the “use-by” date. The premises were generally dirty with a build-up of food debris and an interesting growth of blue mould on the black pudding.
Putting their tenants at risk from fire has cost two landlords £21,600 in fines and £2,242 costs. Despite an emergency prohibition order banning the use of a converted loft for sleeping accommodation the room was occupied when the building caught fire. The tenant was forced to jump from a second floor window suffering concussion and muscular skeletal injuries. Tenants from the lower floors managed to escape unharmed.
Environmental Health News, August 2011
£12,000 fine and £6,607 costs for the manufacturing company that insisted on workers wearing gloves at all times they were working on the factory floor. While this was a perfectly sensible precaution for workers picking up pieces of metal it contravened official guidance that gloves should not be worn when working with rotating equipment. A lathe operator had his glove snag on a rotating pin causing damage to 3 fingers; one finger was later amputated.
£80,000 fine and £45,000 costs for the company that failed to supervise a contractor who was, supposedly, monitoring the water-cooling systems of the manufacturing process. A water tower that should have been thoroughly cleaned every 6 months had not been cleaned for more than 2 years and chemical levels had not been monitored. The contractor was also fined £40,000 with £80,000 costs. A worker at the site had died of Legionnaires’ Disease although it was not legally proven that the death was a result of the maintenance failures.
Using a stacker truck, designed for use on even surfaces, to unload a lorry parked on the road outside the factory resulted in the truck toppling off the kerb and striking an employee. He suffered a broken cheekbone that was so severe he was in hospital for 10 days and off work for 3 months. The company were fined £5,000 and £18,000 costs.
A small fire in a factory fuse box was put out with a fire extinguisher. The next day 2 engineers were asked to seal off the box; as they cleared the debris a fireball set their clothes on fire. Although a colleague used a hose to put out the flames they each suffered over 40% burns and will never recover from their injuries. For failing to ensure the power supply had been disconnected from the fusebox the company were fined £90,000 with £26,790 costs.
A worker was crushed between 2 skips and suffered a fractured pelvis when a shovel loader accidentally pushed the skips together. He was between the skips to urinate because the portable toilet in the yard was too disgusting to use (a fact known to the management). The loader was too large for the area being worked, the driver had not been trained and there were no risk assessments; the company was fined £80,000.
Photo of the Month
Commercial can opener in poor condition
The dried food debris suggests it has been some time since this can opener was cleaned. Rather more worrying are the silver flecks; they are slivers of metal caused by a misalignment of the cog.