Accident Statistics 2010/11
Recently published figures for accidents notified under Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations indicate that workplace related deaths and injuries are continuing to reduce. There is a slight increase relating to the self-employed but, perhaps, that is because there are more self-employed now than there were 10 years ago?
Although approximately 100.000 injuries were officially reported by employers the HSE say that 200,000 employees reported injuries requiring three days off work.
Dangerous occurrences are also showing a downward trend (from 9,629 in 2006/07 to 7,466 in 2010/11).
Surprisingly, the figures indicate that our work activities kill or severely injure more members of the public than actual workers! The vast majority of the deaths (305 out of 318) are from the service industries; presumably, the major injuries would have a similar ratio.
Recent Cases
An amazingly low £5,500 fine for failure to comply with some of the 27 Food Hygiene Improvement Notices served plus breaching the Prohibition Order which banned the use of high risk food products such as cheese, cream and custard in a Northern Ireland bakery. 40 other convictions for food hygiene offences were placed on record and the court ordered the premises to be closed. It is believed the business has ceased to operate!
A delicatessen sausage found in a supermarket was condemned because it was not labelled or date coded. The supermarket owner did not know where it had come from or how it had got into his fridge but thought it was a French/Algerian delicacy and said he would ask for a label next time. The District Judge said the shopkeeper had told a pack of lies and ordered the sausage to be condemned; the local authority were awarded £870 costs for the disposal.
Environmental Health News, December 2011
£70,000 fine for the Scottish salmon farm that failed to realise that its workers sometimes saved time by going out in one boat instead of working in two teams. Five men went out in a boat suitable for 3 men on a day when bad weather was forecast. The boat overturned and the one man not wearing a life jacket drowned; the other 4 managed to swim to shore.
£230,000 fines and £24,302 costs for the food-processing company that had two similar accidents. Firstly, a worker cleaning a running machine had his hand pulled into two rotating cogs where the fixed guard had been removed; his hand needed to be amputated. A few weeks later another worker had his arm trapped and broken after it was pulled into another machine where the interlocked guard had been overridden to facilitate faster cleaning. (Ed. just drop me an e-mail if you would like to know the difference between fixed and interlocked guards).
18 week suspended jail sentence, 280 hours community service and £2,114 costs for each of the two roofers that allowed a 37 kg roll of felt to fall through a roof light. A worker in the office below required hospital treatment and 2 weeks off work for head, shoulder and arm injuries; she could have been severely injured or killed.
Safety & Health Practitioner, December 2011
Photo of the Month
Nothing wrong – a clean chef checking the temperature of a bolognese with a suitable probe thermometer.