The Health Protection Agency have found that plain water in a vehicle windscreen wash can support the growth of Legionella (a bacteria which, if breathed in as a spray, can cause an often fatal form of pneumonia). It is suspected that this may be the source of several cases where no source has been found. The addition of screen wash in the recommended concentration restricts growth and ensures contaminated droplets are not entering the vehicle when the windscreen is washed. Personally, I use screenwash on the grounds that it gives me a cleaner windscreen so I can see where I am going!

Fire Risk Assessment Fine Upheld

The large chain store fined a total of £400 000 for a fire in its Oxford Street store has failed in its appeal to have the fine reduced. The argument put forward was that the fine was excessive because no-one was hurt  and because the guidance only suggests a minimum fine of £100 000 when someone dies. However, the Court of Appeal felt that the absence of multiple deaths was avoided more by luck than suitable control measures and that the fine needed to be high enough to ensure senior management and shareholders took notice. The company’s situation was not helped by it having received an enforcement notice on the same premises some years earlier, by not carrying out the recommendations from an in-house risk assessment (many of which involved little cost or inconvenience) or by having only one fire safety advisor for 600 premises.

There has been some disquiet about the difference in fines between health & safety and fire safety. However, the perception of the courts appears to be that a fire risk is much more likely to result in multiple deaths than a health or safety risk.

The bottom line is that it is far too late to wait for a fire to find out how good are your fire precautions. Fire risk assessments should be regularly reviewed (preferably annually but certainly every couple of years) and there should be a robust system of monitoring the premises to ensure equipment is operational and escape routes are clear and accessible.

Equalities Act 2010

Unless the government change their mind the main provisions of the Equalities Act come into force this October. While the concept of equalities is excellent it is rather disturbing to find the Act needs 218 sections and 28 schedules to tell us how to avoid discrimination.  Section 60 has the laudable aim of prohibiting discrimination during the recruitment process but seems to be written primarily to facilitate “no win, no fee” claims.

Section 60 (1) (a) completely bans enquiries about disability or health before offering work. However, Sub-section (3) then says it is not an offence to merely ask about a prospective employees health; but how the employer uses the information could contravene disability provisions. Sub-section (6) allows questions to be asked to ascertain if the prospective employee is capable of carrying out a function that is intrinsic to the work or to establish if reasonable adjustments need to be made.

In summary, it appears that a general health questionnaire will not be allowed but questions specific to the work are acceptable. So it would seem reasonable to ask a caterer if they had typhoid or a scaffolder if they suffered from vertigo. The important thing is to ensure questions relating to health & disability are genuinely related to the requirements of the advertised job and, of course, the onus is on the employer to maintain documentation to prove they have acted in a reasonable manner.

For more information go to http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx

Recent Cases

A farm worker was lucky when a chainsaw he was using was pushed, by a falling branch, onto his elbow. Although an artery and a tendon were severed he managed to make his way to a nearby road where a passer-by called the emergency services. For his inadequate risk assessment and not supplying any PPE the farmer was fined £1600 plus £1400 costs.

Double stacking loaded pallets is an acceptable storage practice – dependant upon the location, material stacked and regular checks. Someone cleaning up a spill from stacked bags was killed when the upper pallet toppled (the product manufacturer advised its customers not to double stack this product). The company were fined £130 000 plus £10 588 costs. There was also an additional fine of £10 000 for not having qualified first aider on duty at the time of the incident.

Failure to provide evidence of Employers Liability Insurance has cost a car wash firm £6 750 fine plus £1 000 costs. On two occasions the company failed to respond to official requests to prove they had adequate insurance cover and they also declined an invitation for an interview. Further action is likely to follow!

A worker carrying out roof work fell 8 metres and suffered severe injuries when he fell through a fragile panel. The work had not been risk assessed and there was no safe means of access or provisions to prevent falls. The building owner and the contractor were fined £2000 and £2000 costs, the sub-contractor was fined £1000 and £1000 costs.

Not securing a redevelopment site resulted in a young man, wandering onto the site in the early hours, falling 2.4 metres into a basement courtyard. His body was found by construction workers the next morning. The building company were fined a total of £30 000 plus ££6 500 costs. Two directors were individually prosecuted with one being fined £15 000 and £3465 costs; the other was fined £30 000, £6500 costs and banned from being a director five years

Safety & Health Practitioner, August 2010

A mouse jumped out of a pot of sweet and sour sauce during an inspection by the local EHO. Live cockroaches were found in the fridge as well as ample evidence of infestations and woefully inadequate cleaning. Two other restaurants in the vicinity and owned by the same person were then found to be in a similar condition. All three restaurants were closed; the owner was fined £30 000 plus £18 131 costs and received an eight month suspended jail sentence. The Judge also gave him four months to prove he could run the business properly; an unsatisfactory report from the EHO will result in a prohibition order banning him from running a food business.

A Parochial Church Council has been fined £3 000 plus £685 costs after a volunteer injured his spine after falling through a rotting floor in the bell tower. The Church Council knew there was a beetle infestation problem but had not followed up recommendations to carry out works or undertake more detailed surveys.

Environmental Health News 13 Aug 2010

Failure to keep the toilets clean in a factory have resulted in a businessman being fined £30 000 with £3 500 costs. After several warnings and failure to comply with an improvement notice the inspector reported to the court that only once in many visits had the toilets been in a satisfactory condition

The Health Protection Agency has been fined £25 000 and £20 166 costs after spilling a large quantity of E. coli 0157 at their Centre for Infections laboratory.  Although the problem had been raised 18 months earlier they had failed to carry out a risk assessment, train staff or repair the catches on disposal bins. Fortunately, no staff were infected by the spill (E.coli 0157 is the extremely virulent food poisoning organism that has a nasty side effect of sometimes causing strokes in elderly patients and kidney failure in younger patients).

Environmental Health News 30 July 2010

Rock’s Frolics

Inspecting a primary school one Spring day I tried, and failed, to open the rear emergency escape door. The Headmistress suggested the wood may have swollen so I asked when the door had last been opened. After a moments thought she replied, “when we had a very hot day last summer.”

And finally, Fame at Last!

Here is the front cover of of the GWE Business West magazine showing me talking to Martin Vine of Martin’s Help Desk in front of the Domino Risk Management stand at the Bath Business Show. Wow – I’m on a front cover with Ruby Wax (and, some would say, a photo taken from my best angle!).

Domino Risk Management stand at Business West Exhibition

Some street traders in the vicinity of World Cup sites were seen to be selling hearing protection (although HSM reports that business was not brisk!).

Recent Cases

A security guard died from carbon monoxide poisoning when a portable generator was used to provide power inside a makeshift office that had inadequate ventilation. His employer was fined £7 000 and the property owners £70 000 (no costs as it was in Scotland).

Sign workers turned up with a 4.5 metre platform to repair an 8.5 metre sign. One worker stood on top of the platform (that did not edge protection) and footed an extension ladder that was climbed by the contractor. When the whole thing was blown over by the high winds the two men were lucky to escape with miscellaneous fractures, dislocations and bruises! The contractor was fined £1000 plus £1000 costs; he has since purchased suitable equipment for working at height.

Safety & Health Practitioner, July 2010

Failure to provide a safe means of work (such as the use of a harness and fall restraint lanyard) resulted in a 9 metre fall that paralysed a young man from the chest down. Two companies and a managing director have been fined a total of £170 000 and £47 000 costs.

21 months in jail for the landlord that failed to provide the appropriate means of restricting fire spread, raising the alarm or means of escape from living accommodation above commercial premises. A tenant suffered 80% deep tissue burns and was was given less that a 1% chance of survival.

HSE Newsletter June / July 2010

A sweet manufacturer has been fined £4 500 plus £1 600 costs for 5 offences relating to failure to keep the premises clean or deal with a mouse infestation. The company had previously been fined £1 500 in 2006 and £4 000 in 2007 for similar offences. The managing director has been banned from running a food business (he has appealed against the prohibition).

Eight health & safety offences such as trip hazards, no COSHH assessments and inadequate staff training have resulted in  a hotel being fined £16 000 and £4945 costs. They have now employed an external consultant.

Environmental Health News, 2 July 2010

Myth Exposed

Do you hear the recent story about a local authority that had banned access to a coastal path along a loch unless a lifeguard was present? The truth is that the council had simply not put that particular path into a list of local walks suitable for families.

Fit For Work

Doctors are no longer supposed to issue “sick” notes that stipulate a worker is unfit for work; instead they should issue “fit” notes that indicate how capable a person is to undertake work. This may be “not fit for work”, “fit for work” or the centre ground “may be fit for some work”.

Where a GP stipulates a worker may be fit for some work they should also issue some general advice as to the work likely to be suitable. It is accepted that the doctor only has the employees version of the workplace and may have little knowledge of occupational health so, although the employer must take notice, it is only advice and does not have to be followed. However, given goodwill by both the employer and the employee these notes could make return to work after illness or injury much easier. Adjustments such as part-time working, lighter duties, longer breaks or workstation redesign may be appropriate.

Sentencing Guidelines For Corporate Manslaughter

The long awaited guidelines for Courts have now been issued. They do not include the expected fines of 10% of turnover but, instead, say courts should consider turnover, profit and assets in gauging the resources of the defendant. Factors likely to increase fines include the degree of non-compliance across the organisation, the failure to learn from near-misses and cost-cutting.

It is stipulated that fines must be punitive and sufficient to have an impact so will rarely be less than £ ½ million and could be in the millions. A company prosecuted for a similar offence under Health & Safety legislation is likely to attract a fine of at least £100 000 and potentially hundreds of thousands.

Rock’s Frolics

Many years ago I assisted a university in the production of a film about environmental health. One of the areas covered was drainage and I took the film crew to a location where I knew that smoke pumped into a sewer manhole in the centre of the road appeared from a series of rat holes along the embankment. I’ve no idea why but, no matter how much smoke we pumped into the sewer on that occasion, none appeared from the rat holes.

In desperation I lit a couple of smoke rockets and shoved them into the two largest holes; much to my delight the smoke appeared from several locations along the bank and the cameraman confirmed he had some good shots.

The final film quite clearly showed the use of a generator to pump grey smoke into the sewer resulting in copious amounts of brown smoke belching from the rat holes!