Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) recently held a meeting in Aberdeen to discuss the potential risks brought about by the growing use of nanomaterials.

The use of nanomaterials is becoming more common as they apparently can improve product qualities such as strength, durability and absorbency. As a result of this increased use, more workers in a variety of industries are being exposed to potential risk. Nanomaterials are being used in industries such as health care, including for drug treatments; and technology, for example better data storage.

However it is recognised that there are knowledge gaps about the health risks associated with their use. According to safety and health consultant Peter Murray, there is little evidence to suggest that the exposure of workers to nanoparticles has been adequately assessed.

A Forfar metal galvanising company has appeared in court over serious leg injuries sustained by an agency worker when a half-tonne A-frame slipped and fell onto him from a forklift truck.

Robert Ramsey had been helping colleagues move the large A-frame, which measured 3.82 metres by 1.6 metres and weighed almost half a tonne.

The A-frame was lifted and moved outside, where it was raining, on the forks of a forklift truck. It was then turned and was being moved into the correct position with Mr Ramsey and another colleague on opposite sides of the A-frame to steady it.

An amended Government plan to deregulate areas of health and safety remains “unnecessary, unhelpful and unwise”, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has said.

Clause 1 of the Government’s Deregulation Bill will amend the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to exempt certain self-employed from general health and safety duties.

IOSH and a wide-range of other stakeholders have said the clause could lead to confusion, lower standards and increase the risk of injury and illness at work.

The owner of a Derbyshire firm that specialises in refurbishing precision machining tools has been fined for safety breaches after a worker severed a thumb while lifting a heavy component.

Mark Evans, who was 45, was working on rebuilding a rotary table device when the incident happened.  As he worked on the tool, which is used for drilling or cutting work at exact intervals around a fixed axis, and weighs around 30kg, it came loose from a sling attaching it to the prongs of a forklift truck that was being used to lift it.

As the sling slipped through the eyebolts in the rotary table, Mr Evans’ right thumb was somehow trapped by the sling and eyebolt, severing it completely and causing further tendon damage to the hand.

An Edinburgh based pharmaceutical company has recently appeared in Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where it pled guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of an employee who was crushed by a reversing lorry.

The incident occurred in September 2011, at the company’s premises on Wheatfield Road in Edinburgh. The employee in question was attempting to signal a reversing lorry into a loading bay. The driver did not see him as he was focused on another individual who was signalling the lorry in, and as a result the unseen employee was crushed between the lorry and the loading bay wall.

He was found to have suffered severe crush injuries to his head, face, and chest, but fortunately has since made a full recovery.