The Risks of Working with Nanomaterials
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, […]
Scottish Firm Fined after Agency Worker Injured
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 […]
Deregulation Bill’s Health and Safety Clause Remains ‘Unwise’
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 […]
Employer Prosecuted After Worker Severs Thumb
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 […]
Edinburgh Company Fined for Crush Injuries
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 […]
Firms Sentenced After Worker’s Hand Crushed
Two Scottish engineering businesses have been fined for safety failings after a worker’s hand was crushed while helping a forklift truck driver to unload steel beams. The 54-year-old was an HGV driver and had delivered the beams to a company in Stirling. He was standing on the flatbed trailer while a forklift began to unload the second […]
Study finds nighttime work can impact on health
A new study from the University of Surrey has highlighted the potential risk to worker health from shift work after it found that the daily rhythms of our genes are disrupted when sleep times shift. Researchers placed twenty-two participants on a 28-hour day in a controlled environment without a natural light-dark cycle. As a result, their sleep-wake […]
EU health and safety consultation welcomed
Adequate levels of health and safety regulation and enforcement need to be introduced across the EU, with help for small and medium-sized enterprises to comply, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has said. In its submission to a consultation on the EU OSH Policy Framework, Europe’s largest professional body in health and safety […]
Grounding of Super Pumas “a proportionate response”
The temporary grounding of Super Pumas is a “proportionate response” to last week’s fatal accident in the North Sea, said the UK’s largest professional body in occupational safety. However, an outright ban of the helicopter model, intended to restore confidence in the transport of workers to and from oil and gas platforms, would be “too simplistic” a […]
