Suffolk Mushrooms Limited was also housing 37 employees in a disused office block with a potentially unsafe gas boiler on the Shepherd Grove Industrial Estate, East Stanton in Suffolk.
Bury St Edmunds Magistrates' Court heard today that in September 2010, St Edmundsbury Borough Council informed HSE, who then investigated and prosecuted the company.
The HSE investigation found that the heating in the living accommodation was provided by a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) fired boiler in the men's toilet. There was no landlord's gas safety certificate for this boiler, which is a legal requirement.
In the factory used as the mushroom farm, HSE inspectors found a number of safety failings. The gates on the work platforms used by employees to reach the highest mushroom beds were propped open and an HGV regularly reversed 100m between the two growing sheds where people might be walking. Inspectors also found that forklift trucks were being operated by drivers who were not properly trained and equipment was being towed around unsafely with pieces of knotted rope.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 122 views ) | permalink
A Hertfordshire building company has been fined for injuring a woman as she waited for a bus.
Concentra Ltd, based in Waltham Cross, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after inspectors found that the incident on 26 September 2008 was preventable.
Westminster Magistrates' Court heard yesterday (18 April) how a member of the public was waiting for a bus on York Road, London, when she was hit by a piece of machinery being lifted to the fifth floor of a nearby office block.
The woman suffered severe multiple injuries including several broken bones and cuts and swelling to her head. She was in hospital for eight days and the injuries have affected her work and studies.
The building was being refurbished and instead of traditional scaffolding being used on the site, a mast climber had been erected, which allowed workers to be raised and lowered on the outside of the building.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 99 views ) | permalink
There is no shortage of daft decisions being blamed on health and safety. Over the years, the Health and Safety Executive has tackled some quite incredible myths about what health and safety bans or orders people to do.
It's hard to tell where some of these ridiculous and baffling myths originate, but they all have one crucial thing in common - they are not required by health and safety law.
To mark the launch of the new Myth Busters Challenge Panel, HSE has published its top ten worst myths. We want people to work with us to challenge these myths - the time has come to end the madness!
1. Children being banned from playing conkers unless they are wearing goggles
2. Office workers being banned from putting up Christmas decorations
3. Trapeze artists being ordered to wear hard hats
4. Pin the tail on the donkey games being deemed a health and safety risk
5. Candy floss on a stick being banned in case people trip and impale themselves
6. Hanging baskets being banned in case people bump their heads on them
7. Schoolchildren being ordered to wear clip on ties in case they are choked by traditional neckwear
8. Park benches must be replaced because they are three inches too low
9. Flip flops being banned from the workplace
10. Graduates ordered not to throw their mortar boards in the air
[ view entry ] ( 12 views ) | permalink
Seven construction workers were lucky to survive when more than 250 tonnes of wet concrete collapsed at Liverpool John Moores University, a court has been told.
The construction site for a new Art and Design Academy at Liverpool John Moores University following a scaffolding collapse.
Two companies have been fined a total of £100,000 over the incident, which occurred during the construction of an atrium for a new Art and Design Academy at the university.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that workers had been pumping concrete onto the third floor of the building for most of the day on 19 September 2007 when the supporting scaffolding holding up the concrete suddenly collapsed. The workers' injuries included cement burns to their skin and eyes, and bone fractures.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found both the principal contractor for the project, Wates Construction Ltd, and the concrete subcontractor, MPB Structures Ltd, allowed the supporting scaffolding to be erected from a preliminary design, clearly marked 'for discussion and pricing purposes only'.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 69 views ) | permalink
An animal feed producer and a maintenance contractor have been fined after a woman fell five metres through a fragile warehouse roof in Staffordshire.
The 27-year-old woman, who does not want to be named, was repairing a gutter at Provimi Ltd's site in Eastern Avenue, Lichfield, when she tripped and fell through a rooflight.
She fractured two vertebrae and suffered extensive bruising in the fall, keeping her off work for two months, Burton-on-Trent Magistrates' Court heard.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Provimi Ltd and the woman's employer, Alan Riley, trading as Riley & Sons, following the incident on 4 April 2011.
The court heard Provimi had obtained two quotations to repair the warehouse roof, one from a roofing maintenance firm and one from Mr Riley, who had never worked on fragile roofs before.
Read More...
[ view entry ] ( 93 views ) | permalink
Calendar
