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Health and Safety News

Occupational health and safety news and guidance

Blog posts : "H&S News"

Explosion on Surrey industrial estate

Police and fire crews have been called to an industrial park in Surrey after reports of an explosion.

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Police and fire crews have been called to an industrial park in Surrey after reports of an explosion.

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Fatal injury statistics for 2010/11

Summary for 2010/11

  • The provisional figure for the number of workers fatally injured in 2010/11 is 171, and corresponds to a rate of fatal injury of 0.6 per 100,000 workers.
  • Given that these statistics are based on a count of events that are rare, they are highly subject to chance variation from on…

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Safety Notice – Supply of flail-type cutting attachments on portable hand-held brush cutters

Safety Notice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE):

Non-standard metal brush cutting accessories fitted to petrol driven brush cutters can fail catastrophically in-service. There is a risk of death or serious injury to operators and others in vicinity from ejected metal components. Supplier…

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HSE proposal for extending cost recovery

This consultation sets out the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) proposal to replace the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2010 to reinstate existing fees and to extend the range of activities for which HSE recovers costs. In addition to reinstating existing fees the proposed Fees Regulations wou…

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Warning after asbestos kills man 43 years on from accident

A Yorkshire man survived an industrial accident in 1965 only to die 43 years later because he was not protected from asbestos particles in the aftermath, his family has revealed.

Ken Hoggett worked at the giant Ferrybridge power station when three cooling towers collapsed in 100mph winds.

No…

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Proposals on Revised Control of Asbestos Regulations

This consultation sets out the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) proposals to introduce revised Control of Asbestos Regulations to implement the changes required to comply with the European Commission's reasoned opinion on the UK Government's transposition of Directive 83/477/EEC as amended by 200…

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Crane crack sends Australian desalination plant staff home

A crack in a crane at a desalination plant forced the evacuation of 120 workers yesterday.

The workers were sent home at 2.30pm on full pay after the fault was detected in a crane in the pumping station area of the plant.

The workers were evacuated for safety reasons, reports the Herald Sun.

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Marks & Spencer faces fine over asbestos work

Marks & Spencer and three contractors face heavy fines in a sentencing hearing starting on Monday for failing to protect customers, staff and workers from asbestos during the refurbishment of two stores, reports The Guardian.

The charges relate to work at stores in Reading and Bournemouth between…

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RAIB report - bridge strike and road vehicle incursion onto the roof of a passing train near Oxshott station

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) today released its report (click for full report) into a bridge strike and road vehicle incursion onto the roof of a passing train near Oxshott station, 5 November 2010.

On Friday 5 November 2010, a lorry fell from the A244 (Warren Lane) road bridge whic…

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RAIB Report released - AOCL Class Investigation

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) today released its report into an investigation into the safety of automatic open level crossings (AOCL), which are protected only by road traffic light signals and have no barriers, on Network Rail’s managed infrastructure.

The RAIB decided to carry o…

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Meningitis Awareness Week 2011

Meningitis Awareness Week (19-25th September) sees the launch of an online video to support the Meningitis Research Foundation's (MRF) Counting the Cost of Meningitis campaign and builds support for vaccination against meningitis and septicaemia.

The shocking lifelong costs of surviving meningitis …

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UK nuclear power stations - 'stress test' progress report

The UK’s nuclear power stations have all started ‘stress tests’ as part of an agreement to test all such facilities across Europe, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) confirms today.

Following the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan, every nuclear power generating country in Europe…

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"Employers could do more to reduce work-related road deaths"

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has urged employers to do more to reduce the worrying number of work-related road traffic accidents (RTA).

IOSH made the call after research it commissioned with TRL (Transport Research Laboratory) revealed that many companies are spending mon…

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Fear of getting it wrong stops most people learning first aid

Lives are being put at risk because people are avoiding learning first aid for fear of getting it wrong, a leading charity warns today.

A British Red Cross poll of more than 2,000 adults across the UK found that nearly two-thirds of respondents thought people avoid learning first aid because of the …

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Proposals on Revised Control of Asbestos Regulations

This consultation sets out HSE's proposals to introduce revised Control of Asbestos Regulations to implement the changes required to comply with the European Commission's reasoned opinion on the UK Government's transposition of Directive 83/477/EEC as amended by 2003/18/EC on the protection of worke…

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OiRA - Online interactive Risk Assessment project

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) will launch OiRA at the XIX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work in Istanbul between 11 and 15 September 2011.

The OiRA project is a multinational, collaborative endeavour to develop easy-to-use and cost-free web tools aimed at mic…

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Poignant training pledge launched to tackle 4000 asbestos death toll

A poignant target of 4000 hours of free asbestos awareness training has been set in a new initiative to help tradesmen across Britain protect themselves from the deadly dust.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), in partnership with the training industry, is calling for those who run training co…

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RIDDOR Changes - Submission to Ministers next week

An update to the consultation on the “Common Sense, Common Safety” recommendation to amend RIDDOR:

The amendment would increase the “over three” days time period after which an injury must be reported to enforcing authorities to “over seven” days. The increased period coincides with the point wh…

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Court rejects “hazardous to health” odour appeal

An electrical-components manufacturer has lost an appeal against a decision that the health of its workers was not adversely affected by strong smells generated by a neighbouring business, reports SHP Online.

Hirose Electrical UK Ltd. lodged a nuisance claim against Peak Ingredients Ltd. which manuf…

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Top 10 bizarre health and safety 'bans'

top_ten_imageThe Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published this years' ten most bizarre health and safety bans or restrictions spotted in media coverage.

This is just the latest step in the HSE's efforts to 'put the record straight' about health and safety.

What has been good to see is that the media hav…

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20 Blog Posts