Lawford Kidd's Blog

A man has died after he suffered severe burns following an industrial accident at a sewage treatment works.

The incident which occurred in Yorkshire highlights the dangers of working in such an environment,  with industrial accidents in areas such as waste management and other types of work increasing according to provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive.

Mick Jennings had worked for Yorkshire Water for eight years as a mechanical fitter in an engineering team and had a significant amount of training.

New regulations, which aim to cut the risks for those workers/employees involved in offshore installations or similar activities but also safeguard the environment as well as costal economies, came into effect on 19 July 2015.

The Offshore Installations (Offshore Safety Directive) (Safety Case etc) Regulations 2015 – otherwise known as "SCR 2015" – now apply to all oil and gas operations, which take place in UK waters.

A recent campaign by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) to raise awareness of occupational cancers is continuing to grow and has become the most successful campaign the charity has developed, IOSH has reported.

No Time to Lose is highlighting five of the common risk factors for occupational cancer registrations and deaths - diesel engine exhaust emissions, solar radiation, asbestos, silica dust and shift work.

“It’s not necessarily the people who are operating plant machinery that are going to die,” explained IOSH President Ian Harper. “The person who is dying is the one who is cutting a piece of concrete with a disc cutter and making a big cloud of dust, but they are suffering a lot slower.”

According to figures recently released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), between April 2014 and March 2015, there were 142 work-place deaths across the UK.

In comparison, 136 UK-based workers were fatally injured in 2013-14.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, between 2013 and 2014, the number of people who were killed in work-related accidents, rose from 47 to 56.

Incidents involving moving vehicles and cattle are the biggest causes of death on Britain’s farms, according to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) latest fatality statistics.

Thirty three workers and four members of the public were killed on Britain’s farms during 2014/15, with around half (16) being struck or run over by farm equipment, or crushed or trampled by cattle.

The figures also show that: