Hazards news, 17 July 2010

Britain: Tribunal fails to protect safety rep
Penny Gower, a safety rep with the Scottish teaching union EIS, has criticised the flimsy protection provided by employment tribunals to those who stand up for safety. “The ET ruled that I had been unfairly dismissed due to the College summarily sacking me without an appeal, but concluded that they had been right to dismiss me anyway,” said the sacked Carnegie College tutor.
Defend health and safety reps’ rights blog and Penny Gower’s safety rep inspection report [pdf] • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

USA: Campaign wins ban on deadly floor coating
A landmark bill banning the commercial use and sale of a wood floor finishing product linked to fires that left three floor finishers dead has taken effect in Massachusetts. The new law, which was introduced at the urging of an industry-union-community taskforce, targets “lacquer sealer”, a floor finishing product containing nitrocellulose and synthetic resins that can burst into flames at the slightest trigger.
MassCOSH news release, factsheet and report • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Acid eye damage from duff goggles
A 25 year old man left with an injured tear duct and permanently needing to treat his eye with lubricating drops after acid entered his right eye at work. GMB member Phillip Heeney was injured at Omya UK limited of North Ferriby while moving a drum of liquid acid with a colleague.  
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Injured elbow points to neglected safety
Problems spanning several years with water leakage from cooling racks eventually claimed a victim at GlaxoSmithKline in Ulverston, Cumbria. Unite member Dorothy Kirby, 52, slipped and fractured the elbow of her right arm.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

USA: ‘Appalling conditions’ on tobacco farms
Tobacco farm workers in the US are enduring deadly conditions, global farm unions’ federation IUF has revealed. Reynolds American Incorporated (RAI), in which British American Tobacco (BAT) holds a 42 per cent share, sources most of its tobacco leaf from the company's home state of North Carolina.
IUF news release • Tell BAT to stop the abuse • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Stressbusters target not-for-profits
Unite reps in the not-for-profit sector have embarked on a ‘Stressbusters’ campaign. All the union’s reps in the sector are being asked to participate in a national stress survey.
Unite Stressbusters campaign • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: TUC calls for 3R’s – rules, resources and rights
Securing safe and healthy workplaces requires good regulations, proper enforcement and decent rights, TUC has told a government-commissioned enquiry. The TUC comments to Lord Young’s review, which is expected to report in the coming weeks, notes that the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) fatalities figure represents on “a tiny proportion” of those killed by work.
TUC news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: There is no compensation culture
There has been a dramatic decline in compensation claims for work-related injury and ill-health, union legal advisers have told a government-commissioned enquiry. They say the government’s own Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) statistics which show employer liability claims have fallen 69 per cent from 2000/01 to 2009/10 – from 219,183 in 2000/1 to 78,744 in 2009/10.
Thompsons Solicitors submission • Prospect news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Coalition not serious on safety
The health and safety of Britain’s workforce is not being taken seriously by the coalition government, Unite has said. Joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, accused former Tory cabinet minister Lord Young, who is heading a government review, of being “offensive”.
Unite news release • Daily Mirror • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Deregulation is already bad for you
The UK’s workplace safety standards have been undermined by changes in the official approach to health and safety regulation over the past decade, a new report has found. Academics from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University found the policy changes have affected the ability of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to enforce effectively health and safety law.
University of Liverpool news release • Regulatory Surrender: death, injury and the non-enforcement of law, Institute of Employment Rights, July 2010. Purchase details from IER, The People's Centre, 50-54 Mount Pleasant, Liverpool L3 5SD, or call 0151 702 6925 or email IER • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

USA: Coalition for Workplace Safety a big con
The ‘Coalition for Workplace Safety’ sounds virtuous enough. But it turns out to be an industry front organisation, bent on derailing attempts to tighten US workplace safety rules.
The Pump Handle • Coalition for Workplace Safety • The Seminal • The Hill • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: We didn’t vote to die at work
The Hazards Campaign has launched a national ‘We didn’t vote to die at work’ campaign. The initiative, which was premiered at this month’s National Hazards Conference in Keele, has already attracted wide support from unions and safety reps.
Join the ‘We didn’t vote to die at work’ Facebook group. If you want to get hold of campaign resources, contact the Hazards Campaign, Windrush Millennium Centre, 70 Alexandra Road, Manchester, M16 7WD, or email  or phone 0161 636 7557. T-shirts cost £6 (that includes postage) and are available in small, medium, large, XL, XXL and XXXL (send a cheque made out to ‘Hazards Campaign’) • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Who pays BP’s disaster bill? You do
If you thought the multi-billion dollar costs of destroying refineries and oil rigs (and killing workers, ruining livelihoods and wrecking the environment in the process), might have a chastening effect on BP, you might need to think again. BP is forecast to pay about $10bn less tax over the next four years as it meets the costs of its huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hitting the revenues of Britain and the US that receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the company each year.
Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

South Africa: New spate of mine deaths
Seven miners were killed in three separate underground mine accidents in South Africa in the space of a week, including five contract workers at Aquarius Platinum’s Marikana mine in the Bushveld area near Rustenburg, North West Province.
ICEM news report • The Guardian • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Lab staff exposed to deadly bacteria
The Health Protection Agency has been fined £25,000 for a spillage of the deadly bacterium E.coli 0157 at its centre in Colindale, north London. Three employees were put at risk of contamination although nobody was infected, the Old Bailey heard.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Cleaner killed at plastics firm
A Rochdale plastics manufacturer has been fined £140,000 after a Portuguese cleaner was crushed to death by a pallet of bags weighing nearly one and a half tonnes. TS (UK) Ltd was prosecuted for failing to ensure the safety of its employees and not having a worker trained in first aid on duty.
HSE news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Farm worker crushed in his cab
Farming and haulage company Pearn Wyatt & Son has been fined £21,000 with £54,000 costs after a 24-year-old agriculture worker was crushed to death on a farm in Norfolk. Sam Foley had been using a tractor to tow manure to a field at Grange Farm, in Snetterton, on 8 July 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Roofing firm fined £2,000 after teen’s plunge
A roofing company has been prosecuted after a teenage worker fell three metres through a fragile roof, breaking his arm. Apprentice Shaun Jacob, 18, was removing the ridge from a metal sheet roof when a sheet he was standing on buckled and he fell to the ground.
HSE news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Cactus sap put worker in hospital
A worker was hospitalised and suffered long-term eye damage after being squirted with cactus juice. Carl Woodbridge, a technician working for Ambius, a subsidiary of Rentokil Initial UK Ltd, was working at a Milton Keynes shopping centre in October 2008, to carry out pruning on several large cacti, one of which had become unstable.
Milton Keynes Council news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Britain: Prefab demolition led to asbestos death
A man who developed cancer after being exposed to asbestos while demolishing prefabricated houses received a compensation payout just weeks before his death. John Manniex, from Leigh in Greater Manchester, died of mesothelioma on 1 July.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 465 • 17 July 2010

Hazards news, 10 July 2010

Britain: Total safety queried after refinery death
Safety standards at the oil giant Total, found guilty of safety breaches last month related to the Buncefield oil depot explosion, have been questioned by unions after the death of a worker at a Lincolnshire refinery. Unite member Robert Greenacre, 24, died after a fire and explosion at Total’s Lindsey plant on 29 June.
Unite news release • GMB news release • Morning Star • Grimsby Telegraph • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

USA: Cheap masks won’t protect Gulf workers
Masks issued to workers in the Gulf of Mexico cleaning up the BP oil spill are not offering the necessary protection, an expert has warned. Industrial hygienist Eileen Senn, writing in The Pump Handle blog, reports the $5 officially recommended masks are “not approved for organic vapours” meaning “this dust mask presumably will remove only small amounts of hydrocarbon vapours, so workers may still be exposed to them.”
The Pump Handle • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Global: Campaigners denounce Canada on asbestos
A protest outside London’s Canada House was intended to “shame” Canada for promoting asbestos exports, the organisers said. The protest on 1 July, timed to coincide with official celebrations to mark Canada Day, took place as plans were being finalised to pump Canadian federal and state funds into an expansion of asbestos production and exports -  demonstrators carried banners bearing messages including: “Canadian asbestos – buy now, die later.”
UCATT news release • GMB news release • Asbestos Forum news release [pdf].
A worn-out welcome: Renewed call for a global ban on asbestos, Environmental Health Perspectives, 1 July 2010 • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Global: RMT sounds safety alarm over rail cuts
Transport union RMT has raised serious safety fears over rail maintenance as it emerged the transport budget is being lined up for cuts of up to 40 per cent as part of the government’s public spending plans. The union said cuts of this magnitude would “savage” maintenance and renewals work.
RMT news release • BBC News Online • The Independent • TUC Cuts Watch • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Scaffolder gets brain damage payout
A scaffolder who was left with a severe brain injury after a workplace fall has received a “substantial” sum in compensation. Unite member Patrick O’Malley, 35, spent four years in hospital after the injury, suffered while working for Powertherm Access Services.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Finland: Exhaustion trebles work death risk
Work-related exhaustion can be deadly for industrial workers, a new study has concluded. Finnish researchers found industrial employees who are under 45 years of age were almost three times as likely to die as other workers, with the most common causes of death tumour (34 per cent), accident (26 per cent), suicide (26 per cent) and coronary decease (22 per cent).
Trade Union News from Finland • Burnout as a predictor of all-cause mortality among industrial employees: A 10-year prospective register-linkage study, Journal of Psychosomatic Research volume 69, issue 1, pages 51-57, July 2010 [abstract] • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Ambulance workers under attack
There must be ‘zero tolerance’ of violence against ambulance workers, the union GMB has said. The union’s new analysis of NHS data on assaults shows there were 2,705 assaults on ambulance staff in England in the two years to April 2009.
GMB news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: HSE work death figure falls again
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures on the number of people killed at work in Britain fell last year to a record low. The HSE provisional data, which exclude work-related road, marine and air accident deaths and the entire occupational disease death toll, show that 151 workers were killed between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 compared to 178 deaths in the previous year and an average number over the last five years of 220 deaths per year.
HSE news release, statistics webpage and latest fatality figures • TUC news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Deaths down in construction
There has been a marked decrease in construction fatalities in Britain, the new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures show. In 2009/10 there were 41 deaths in the construction sector, down from 52 fatalities in the sector the year before.
UCATT news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Deaths up in agriculture
There has been a sharp upturn in the number of workers killed in agriculture. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) fatality figures for the period from 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 show 38 agriculture workers were killed at work. HSE says this marks a return to average levels of previous years, in contrast to the record low in 2008/09 when 25 workers died.
HSE news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

China: Steelworkers killed in bus fire
A shuttle bus carrying steel factory workers in eastern China burst into flame, killing 24 of those on board. The tragedy happened in Wuxi, in Jiangsu province near Shanghai, on a bus from the Wuxi Xuefeng Steel Company.
Shanghai Daily • BBC News Online • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: HSE statistics omit most deaths - official
Unions and campaigners have warned that official workplace death figures only show a small part of the real toll – a point also recognised in an official probe. The UK Statistics Authority checked HSE’s figures against a code of practice for official statistics and indicated they do not make the grade, concluding “HSE does not produce an overall figure for work-related fatalities in Great Britain” and recommends HSE “investigate the feasibility of producing statistics on the total number of work-related injuries and fatalities.”
UNISON news release • Hazards Campaign news release • BIS news release • Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Your Freedom •
Assessments of compliance with Code of Practice for official statistics - 'Statistics on Health and Safety at Work (produced by the Health and Safety Executive), Report Number 42, UK Statistics Authority, 27 May 2010 [pdf] • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: HSE observes hi-tech horror show
Microelectronics firms in Britain have neglected health risks to workers, tampered with crucial safety alarms and have shown no consideration of the risks faced by entire groups of workers, an official report has found. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) uncovered “weaknesses”, “misunderstandings” and poor practices in vital safety procedures across the sector.
Unite news release • Sunday Herald • Rob Edwards website • Control and management of hazardous substances in semiconductor manufacturers in Great Britain in 2009, HSE, July 2010 [pdf] • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Pesticides linked to cancer increases
A ‘dramatic’ increase in a range of occupational and childhood cancers has been linked to pesticide exposures. A report published last week by CHEM Trust links exposure prior to conception or during pregnancy to higher rates of childhood cancer and warns that farm workers could also be developing cancers caused by pesticide exposures at work.
Chem Trust news release [pdf] and report [pdf] • Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Scotsman • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Canada: Workers see red at ‘green’ hotels
Hotel workers are paying a high personal price so hospitality employers can claim they have gone ‘green’. Staff at the US-based Starwood Hotels chain - which is touting a ‘Make a Green Choice’ programme in its hotels across North America and which includes Westin and Sheraton hotels – say the initiative is a bogus green plan that does nothing for the environment.
Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Asbestos epidemic reminder from campaigners
More than 60,000 people in the UK will die in the future having previously been exposed to asbestos leading to a total death toll of 90,000 by the year 2050, campaigners have warned. But they say that despite the magnitude of the epidemic, prevention, research and treatment are all seriously neglected.
Asbestos Forum Action Mesothelioma Day events listing • Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • HSE news release • BLF news release • Morning Star • Manchester Evening News • North West Evening Mail • Leicester Mercury • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Construction bosses fined after death
Two directors of PIB (UK) Ltd and their company have been fined after a member of the public died on one of their construction sites. John Blankson, 55, and Steven Moore, 44, pleaded guilty to safety charges and were fined, and Moore was also disqualified from being a director for five years.
HSE news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Global firms fined for crushing death
Two global companies have been ordered to pay a total of £160,000 in fines after a man was crushed to death by a rolling lorry. Logistics company Exel Europe Ltd and Imperial Tobacco Ltd both pleaded guilty to criminal safety breaches relating to the death of 42 year-old Exel heavy goods driver Gary Brooks.
HSE news release • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

Britain: Comet fined after fatal roof fall
Electrical chain Comet has been fined £75,000 and ordered to pay £24,446 legal costs after the death of a roof worker at a Wrexham store. Comet had previously admitted failing to ensure the safety of Paul Alker, who fell through a skylight in 2007 and whose boss, Steven Smith of Wrexham Roofing Services, was earlier jailed for two years in 2007 after being convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Daily News • Risks 464 • 10 July 2010

 

Hazards news, 3 June 2010

Britain: Unions slam ‘work until you drop’ move
Unions have condemned government proposals to raise the retirement age, which could leave former workers in some of the poorest parts of the country receiving less than two years pension on average before they die. UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: “By increasing the retirement age the ConDems are effectively forcing many construction workers to work until they drop.”
DWP news release • When should the state pension age increase to 66? – A Call for Evidence • GMB news release • UCATT news release • UNISON news release • TUC news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

USA: Sometimes deadly behaviour does not pay
Employers and corrupt public officials frequently get away with deadly behaviour – but not always. A contractor is now under house arrest and a crane inspector who accepted bribes is serving jail time after being linked to deadly workplace incidents in the US.
In These Times • New York Times • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

USA: Roofers face work-related early retirement
A combination of poor health and musculoskeletal disorders is forcing roofers into early retirement, a new study has found. The study of 979 roofers between the ages of 40 and 59 found that 10 per cent left the roofing trade within a year, and of those leaving, 60 per cent left their job due to chronic pain, work-related musculoskeletal disorders and poor health.
CPWR news release [pdf] • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: RMT warns of ‘huge’ rail safety risks
Rail union RMT has warned that a failure to update the country’s rail system will create ‘huge safety risks’.  RMT was responding to an indication from the secretary of state for transport that train fares are going to be jacked up while modernisation and renewal work is to be shelved.
RMT news release • Financial Times • The Herald • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Six figure payout to injured shunter
A GMB member whose leg was seriously injured when he was flung from a barrow truck while working at a haulage company has received £245,000 compensation. The man, whose name has not been released but who worked as a shunter at GCT in Thorne, was helping to load pallets on to wagons.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Ireland: Voluntary fails, inspection succeeds
A dramatic decline in workplace fatalities and injuries has been delivered in Ireland after its safety agency boosted the number of official workplace inspections. A previous policy, where the watchdog introduced a US-style voluntary programme, was abandoned after it was followed by a marked upturn in workplace deaths.
HSA news release • RTÉ News • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Unfit fitter finished by flawed floor
A Unite member has been forced to take early retirement as a result of injuries sustained when he tripped over a fire hydrant cover at work. Thomas Mirehouse, 63, from Maryport in Cumbria, has been left with a significant disability in his left shoulder after suffering the injury.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Tube standards under threat from cuts
This week’s confirmation by London mayor Boris Johnson that Transport for London has completed its takeover of the failed Tube Lines operation, has prompted a warning that planned job cuts on London Underground will undermine standards and safety.
RMT news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Warning on government safety review
A government review of health and safety must not be allowed to undermine essential workplace protection, unions and campaigners have warned. David Cameron last month formalised a government call for Lord Young to review health and safety regulation, a process started pre-election by the Conservatives and which has already faced strong criticism from unions.
FACK letter to Lord Young • Morning Star • Daily Telegraph • Risks 463 • 3 June 201

Global: Condemnation of Canada’s asbestos ruse
Moves to use public money to underwrite the cost of a massive expansion of asbestos mining in Canada are attracting condemnation in Canada and worldwide. This week, in a letter sent to Quebec leader Jean Charest, the Canadian Cancer Society urged the premier not to approve a Can$58 million (£36.6m) loan guarantee to Jeffrey Asbestos Mines, based in Quebec.
Canadian Cancer Society news release and position statement • Public Citizen news release • Montreal Gazette • CBC News. RightOnCanada • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Enforcement bad on safety, terrible on health
Enforcement action by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has plummeted on almost all major indicators, the watchdog’s board has been told. The report to the HSE board suggests prosecutions on health issues are especially rare – an HSE guesstimate indicates they are outnumbered 7-to-1 by safety prosecutions - despite work-related diseases outnumbering officially reported workplace injuries by five to one.
Review of enforcement by FOD, paper to the HSE board, 30 June 2010 [pdf] • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Son of Workplace Health Connect flops
An attempt to tweak a failed official initiative to provide health and safety advice to smaller, non-union firms has also been an expensive flop. “The government should accept roving union safety reps are the answer to improved safety in smaller firms, rather than unworkable, unwanted advisory services,” commented Hazards magazine’s Jawad Qasrawi.
Healthy workplaces Milton Keynes pilot: Evaluation findings, HSE research report RR809, June 2010 [pdf] • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Directors need statutory safety duties
Most company directors are not taking health and safety seriously at boardroom level, so statutory directors’ duties on safety are the only alternative, the findings of a government commissioned review suggest. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said most firms had done nothing, “so the case for statutory duties is now unanswerable.”
The report of the Steering Group overseeing an independent evaluation of measures taken to strengthen director leadership of health and safety, HSE, June 2010 [pdf] • UCATT news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Europe: Safety is an investment not a cost
Recession-hit firms should not let health and safety slip down the list of priorities, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has said. “Spending on workplace health and safety should be seen as an investment and not a cost,” commented EU-OSHA director Jukka Takala at the launch of the agency’s 2009 annual report.
EU-OSHA news release, Annual Report 2009  and Summary • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Controversy over fitness to work tests
Iain Duncan Smith has denied reports that ministers are considering trebling ‘fitness to work’ tests on people claiming incapacity benefit. The work and pensions secretary said the government has at the moment “absolutely no intention” of changing the 10,000 a week rate begun under Labour.
The Guardian • BBC News Online • Personnel Today • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Wood dust caused nose cancer
A widow has received compensation after her husband died of a work-related nose cancer. Barry Haw contracted the condition after being exposed to wood dust while working as a craftsman for Robert Thompsons Craftsmen Limited.
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Did vinyl chloride cause deadly stomach cancer
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors is seeking information to help in the case of Jonathan Cooke from Stourport on Severn, who died age 39 of stomach cancer on 4 December 2007. His work at Dura Automotive for over 20 years could have exposed him to the potent human carcinogen vinyl chloride.
Information request: Anyone who worked at Dura Automotive in Stourport is being asked to contact Satinder Bains at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors on 0870 1500 100 • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: BP’s unsafe UK record exposed
The troubled oil giant BP has been caught breaking health and safety regulations 54 times over the past five years in the UK, according to Health and Safety Executive (HSE) records. The official action against the British multinational relates to a series of maintenance and operating lapses which put workers and the environment at risk from major leaks, fires and accidents in the North Sea and elsewhere.
Sunday Herald • More on BP’s safety record • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Government to adopt BP business model
John Browne, Tony Hayward’s predecessor as chief executive of BP, has been appointed by the UK government to oversee moves to make Whitehall “more businesslike.” Lord Browne was the architect of the much criticised BP cost- and safety-cutting strategy implicated in the Texas City refinery disaster, which killed 15, and a sequence of other safety and environmental crimes.
Cabinet Office news release • Green jobs, safety jobs blog • BBC News Online • AFL-CIO Now blog • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Man killed in oil refinery blast
A worker has been found dead after a fire and explosion at an oil refinery in North East Lincolnshire. The man, whose name was not released in the immediate aftermath of the blast, was working near a crude oil distillation which exploded at Total’s Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Killingholme on 29 June.
BBC News Online on the 29 June and 19 June fatalities at the Total refinery site • Hartlepool Mail • Peterlee Mail • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Britain: Company fined £280,000 after horror death
A brick firm worker who had only been on site for two weeks was killed when his head was crushed between concrete blocks and a metal platform. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted brick manufacturing company Hanson Building Products Ltd, after the death of Peter Clarke, 57, at the company's distribution plant in Coleshill on 26 April 2008.
HSE news release • Coventry Telegraph • Risks 463 • 3 June 2010

Hazards news, 26 June 2010

USA: BP disaster victims could lose out
Thanks to a 90-year-old legal loophole, the families of the 11 workers killed on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig may be denied full compensation for the loss of their loved ones. Under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), unlike occupational fatalities on land – where the worker's family can sue for both pecuniary (lost wages) and non-pecuniary damages (recompense for the loss of a loved one) - the families of the victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster are only able to recoup lost wages.
In These Times • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

USA: Probe to fine ‘root causes’ of BP well disaster
The Chemical Safety Board (CSB), the organisation that investigated BP’s Texas City disaster and pinned much of the blame on the company’s London-based global board, is to investigate the “root causes” of the latest industrial catastrophe blighting BP’s record.
CSB investigation announcement [pdf] • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Tory review wrong from the start
The outcome of a government health and safety review, which seems to have been pre-ordained by the time David Cameron kicked off the process last week, has been strongly criticised by the TUC. Five days after the prime minister announcing Lord Young was to undertake the review, the former Tory employment and trade secretary was telling the Times “People occasionally get killed, it’s unfortunate but it’s part of life” and declaring health and safety regulations protecting office workers were “nonsense”.
BBC News Online • Scotsman • IOSH news release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

USA: Pratt study did show cancer rise
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft has been accused of burying evidence of higher cancer rates at a Connecticut factory. A series of headlines this month trumpeted the company line: ‘No cancer link found at P&W’; ‘Study: Pratt & Whitney Workers Got Brain Cancer At Same Rate As Overall Population,’ and ‘Study Shows No Cluster At North Haven Plant.’
New Haven Independent • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Don't play politics with safety
David Cameron should not play politics with workplace health and safety, a union expert has warned. Roger Kline, from the children’s services union Aspect, notes: “In the year when the cost of cutting corners on health and safety killed oil rig workers, polluted an ocean and threatens the very existence of BP, our prime minister, (without a dissenting squeak from his coalition partners) claims we need to end the ‘compensation culture’ in health and safety.”
The Big Picture, Community Care blog • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

USA: Work safety laws are top public issue
Health and safety regulations are the most important workplace issue for the public, new US research has found. A national poll on by the Public Welfare Foundation and researchers at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center found a massive 85 per cent say workplace safety regulations are “very important”, heading the poll.
Public Welfare Foundation news release • full report and audio release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Strike breaking jeopardised swim safety
Unions last week raises ‘serious concerns’ about health and safety arrangements at a major UK swimming event affected by strike action. Glasgow branch secretary Brian Smith, speaking on day one of the ‘rock solid’ action, said the safety concerns were so acute the unions contacted the Health and Safety Executive.
UNISON news release • Glasgow Life news release • Morning Star • BBC News Online • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Global: Campaign aims to scupper pirates
Workplace violence a big issue for trade unionists – and maritime professionals are having to deal with one of the most extreme forms of workplace violence: piracy. Mark Dickinson, general secretary of seafarers’ union Nautilus International, says it is “incredible” his members are still at risk “on a daily basis”.
Touchstone blog • Global Campaign Against Piracy - sign the petition now! • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Bosses pocket bonuses as pubs crumble
Directors of a major pub chain are pocketing ‘massive bonuses’ but neglecting essential maintenance to their properties with potentially deadly consequences, GMB has said. The union has called on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate all Pubco Enterprise Inns premises “before someone is killed.”
GMB news release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: ‘Lethal’ plan for driverless Tube trains
Tube union RMT has condemned ‘lethal and unworkable’ plans hatched by Conservatives on the London Assembly to move the entire London Underground train system to driverless operation.
RMT news release • BBC News Online report, including the Tory memo [pdf] • Personnel Today • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: You decide, says firm – eyes or ears?
A West Midlands fitter was forced to make a choice between protecting his ears or his eyes at work. The 66-year-old Unite member is now deaf in his left ear and suffers from tinnitus after he was exposed to excessive levels of noise while working for a factory for 40 years.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Worker maimed in molten metal spill
A foundry worker who suffered 65 per cent burns during a spillage of molten metal has received a ‘substantial’ sum in compensation. The 28-year-old Unite member from Horwich, whose name has not been released, suffered extensive burns to his legs, feet, arms, hands and torso and was put into a medically induced coma following the incident at PMT Industries in Tonge Moor in January 2008.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Oil giants guilty in Buncefield blast
A company controlled by Total and Chevron has been found guilty of grave safety failures that led to the Buncefield oil depot explosion. Hertfordshire Oil Storage Limited (HOSL), which was owned by the oil giants, failed to prevent major accidents and limit their effects, a court has found.
HSE/Environment Agency joint statement • HSE Buncefield webpages • The Guardian. Buncefield Investigation website • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Campaign leads to fewer quarry injuries
Reportable injuries in the quarry sector are down 76 per cent since the 'Hard Target' initiative was launched in 2000, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said, with reportable injuries down from over 500 to below 200 a year.
HSE news release and campaign details • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Worker loses leg under waste recycling truck
A Cheshire recycling company has been fined £10,000 after a worker lost part of his leg when he was crushed by an 18-tonne truck. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted WSR Recycling Ltd after the incident, which led to the worker’s left leg being amputated below the knee.
HSE news release and waste webpages • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Council fined after school death fall
A council has been fined £56,000 after an electrician was killed when a work platform collapsed in a school gym hall. Robert McGill suffered severe brain injuries in the 6 April 2009 incident at Kilmarnock Academy, and died later in hospital.
HSE news release and falls webpages • BBC News Online • Glasgow Evening Times. Scotsman • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Father fined after son’s fall
A sawmill and the father of an injured worker have been fined after the roofing contractor fell through a skylight and suffered serious head injuries. Woodgate Sawmills Limited, and Stanley John Frederick Stephens of The Longhope Welding Company were prosecuted after Robert Stephens, 40, fell through a fragile skylight on 1 June 2007 while working on the roof of a sawmill building in Coleford.
HSE news release • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Britain: Workers caught short on toilet breaks
Many of us are being short-changed by our employers when it comes to the call of nature. A study by the Labour Research Department (LRD) has found many British workers are suffering because of inadequate toilet facilities and restrictive toilet break rules.
LRD news release • BBC News Online • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

China: Illegal coal mine kills 47
A coal mine in central China's Henan Province where an underground explosion killed 47 people on 21 June was operating illegally, officials said. The operation license of Xingdong No. 2 Mine in Weidong District, Pingdingshan City, expired on 6 June, and the district government cut its electricity supply on 7 June, according to local officials.
Xinhua • BBC News Online • The Independent • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

India: Panel reconsiders Bhopal leak action
Cabinet ministers are recommending that India's government revisit its response to the 1984 toxic gas leak in Bhopal. The fact that the Bhopal tragedy is back in the news at the same time as the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has added to the sense that victims of the 1984 disaster have been terribly let down.
The Guardian • BBC News Online. The Hindu • Risks 462 • 26 June 2010

Hazards news, 19 June 2010

USA: Oil companies all fail the safety test
Members of the US Congress tore into the big energy corporations on 15 June for filing almost identical and identically flawed Gulf of Mexico oil spill response plans. The verbal assault by committee members undermined attempts by the oil giants to suggest that their working practices differ from those of BP; and that the catastrophe, which killed 11 workers, would not have happened if the well had been theirs.
Green jobs blog • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

USA: Corporate greed causes work deaths
As oil mucked the Gulf of Mexico and families mourned 11 dead rig workers, BP officials proclaimed that the corporation’s priority always was safety. This mirrored the tack taken by Massey Energy, whose officials also declared safety was paramount after an explosion in the corporation’s Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers.
Campaign for America’s Future • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Cash van driver overturns conviction
A security van driver found guilty of assault and a parking offence has had his conviction overturned. The GMB member, whose name has not been released, had parked his G4S van on double yellow lines at Kings Cross Station in central London while collecting in excess of £20,000 from rail firm GNER.
GMB news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Workers creaking under the strain
British workers are suffering physical pain as well as stress from working long hours, not taking lunch breaks and going to work when they are sick, research carried out for the physios’ union CSP has found. A survey commissioned by CSP found a quarter of people regularly work all day without taking a break, and more than half said they often go to work when they are stressed or physically unwell.
CSP news release • BBC News Online • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

USA: 'Nailed' – an enforcement blog with teeth
Many followers of health and safety will be used to official enforcement and compensation agencies adopting one of two voices – a serious and measured tone when things go wrong or enthusiastically extolling the virtues of partnership and cooperation in better times. But in the US, Washington State’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) has launched a blog that is altogether more pithy.
Nailed blog • Washington State Department of Labor & Industries news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Slipped disc costs scaffolder his job
A Scunthorpe scaffolder has had to give up his job after suffering a serious back injury at work. Unite member Kenneth Higgins, 55, suffered the slipped disc while working for Powertherm Access Services in February 2005.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Europe: Have your say on green jobs
As oil laps on the US coast, there’s renewed energy in discussions of green jobs. And that means new opportunities and, potentially, new risks, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) says. In response, its European Risk Observatory (ERO) “has commissioned a foresight study to explore the potential impact that key technological innovations may have on workers’ health and safety, both positively and negatively, in jobs in the green economy (‘green jobs’) and what new and emerging risks to occupational safety and health (OSH) this may bring by 2020.”
EU-OSHA blog and online questionnaire • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Bread sandwiches worker against rail
A bakery worker who was pinned against a safety rail by an 80 kilo stack of bread has received almost £4,000 in compensation for his injuries. The worker, a member of the union BFAWU, was left with soft tissue injuries to his lower back and severe bruising to his thigh following the incident at a bakery in Stockton in December 2009.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Government aims to remove safety rules
The TUC has said a review of UK health and safety regulation announced this week by David Cameron will undermine the “already limited” legal protection of UK workers. He said the prime minister was pandering to the businesses that are responsible for hundreds of thousands of workers falling sick each year.
10 Downing Street news release • TUC news release • Stronger Unions blog • Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Morning Star • The Guardian • The Independent • Daily Mail • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Review must debunk ‘burdens’ myth
Unions and campaigners have warned that essential regulation and enforcement of health and safety must not be abandoned by the government. Hilda Palmer of the Hazards Campaign said: “There is a lack of evidence or fact to support the need or value of cutting regulation of health and safety, a lack of balance in failing to mention the burden on workers hurt or made ill, and on the families of those killed, and a failure to mention the massive cost of up to £30 billion per year of bad health and safety, the majority of which employers externalise onto all of us.”
Prospect news release • NASUWT news release • HSE news release and facts about HSE’s role webpages • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Controversial MP is new safety minister
A member of parliament referred to in the press as a Conservative Party ‘attack dog’ and who before becoming an MP worked for a union-busting PR firm that creates front organisations for polluting industries is the new health and safety minister. Chris Grayling, who was shadow Home Secretary before the election, is now minister of state at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
Green jobs blog • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Job loss digger driver killed himself
A digger driver from Hull hanged himself after losing his job, an inquest has heard.
Patrick McLaughlin, 52, been made redundant when the company he was working for went into liquidation in August last year.
Hull Daily Mail • TUC news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Union welcome for medic hours probe
The TUC has welcomed the findings of a government commissioned independent review, which concludes it is possible to deliver high quality training for hospital doctors within the 48 hour limit on average weekly working time.
TUC news release • Time for training - a review of the impact of the Working Time Directive on the quality of training • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Europe: Strain injuries in Europe
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) remain the most common occupational disease in the European Union and workers in all sectors and occupations can be affected, a new report from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has concluded. It says: “The report highlights the main issues and aims to provide a well-founded evidence base, helping policy makers, actors at enterprise and sector level, as well as researchers and those who record, prevent and compensate occupational diseases in the European Union to set the agenda for the next years.”
OSH in figures: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders in the EU - Facts and figures • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Bakery bosses exposed workers to flour, power
The directors of a Bedford based DG Bakery Ltd have been fined after a series of health and safety breaches exposed staff to serious danger - including electrocution and exposure to flour dust.
HSE news release • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Manager fined after teen trainee is injured
The manager of a Fareham diving company has been fined £2,500 for health and safety breaches that led to teenage trainee Jonathan Holmes breaking his ankle at work. Andrew William Steel Baillie, general manager of Sub Surface Engineering Ltd, pleaded guilty to the charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE news release • Portsmouth News • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Britain: Asbestos protest, Canada House, London, 1 July
Asbestos and safety campaigners are to protest outside Canada House on 1 July. The event, on Canada’s National Day, is to protest at Canada’s continuing support for Quebec’s exports of asbestos to the developing world.
Asbestos protest at Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London 10am to 12 noon, 1 July 2010. Event details • Risks 461 • 19 June 2010

Hazards news, 12 June 2010

Global: Olympic suppliers ‘degrade’ workers
Appalling and degrading conditions are being endured by millions of workers producing sportswear and Olympic branded merchandise, unions and campaigners have warned. The TUC, along with Labour Behind the Label, unions and human rights campaign groups, is part of the Playfair 2012 campaign calling on the organisers of London 2012 and the Olympic movement to ensure that workers’ rights are respected.
TUC news release • Labour Behind the Label • Playfair 2012 • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Mexico: States forces back ‘homicide’ mine
Unions have condemned an assault by heavily armed federal riot police on striking mineworkers at the Cananea copper mine near the US border. On Sunday 6 June at about 10pm, hundreds of police surrounded the mine, which has been occupied by the miners, and used tear gas to dislodge the workers.
IMF news release • USW news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Derailment shows why guards are essential
Rail union RMT has again demanded Scotrail call an immediate halt to plans to extend Driver Only Operation (DOO) on its services after eight people needed hospital treatment as a result of a train derailment on Sunday 6 June.
RMT news release • Scotsman • Morning Star • BBC News Online • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Unite safety alert after Corus death
The union Unite is calling on all safety reps to make sure employers take all the necessary steps to prevent fatalities after a member was killed at work. The call for vigilance follows the 23 April death of an electrician working for Corus at their Scunthorpe Concast Plant.
Unite news release • Scunthorpe Telegraph • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Global: Union work gets more deadly
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of trade unionists murdered, with new figures revealing there were 101 killings in 2009 – up 30 per cent over the previous year. The latest Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights, published by global union confederation ITUC, also reveals growing pressure on fundamental workers’ rights around the world as the impact of the global economic crisis on employment deepened.
ITUC news release and survey, video and multimedia resources • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Global: UCATT slams Australian ‘show trial’
UCATT has said called on the Australian authorities to abandon the ‘show trial’ of an Australian union rep who stood up for safety. The UK construction union has sent a message of solidarity to its Australian sister union CFMEU and construction worker Ark Tribe, who refused to answer to an anti-union “interrogation squad”.
UCATT news release • CFMEU news release • Rights on site • Find out more about Ark Tribe’s case • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Train deaths led to nervous breakdown
A Hull train driver suffered a nervous breakdown after he was involved in a fatal collision on a railway crossing. ASLEF member David Jarrad, 56, suffered post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and permanent phobic anxiety after the incident in June 2005 when his train hit a car crossing the line between Thorne and Goole.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Ear protection came 30 years too late
A GMB member who was exposed to dangerous levels of noise in the workplace for over 30 years has been left with occupational deafness and tinnitus. Terence Haywood, 62, has received £13,000 in compensation for the damage to his hearing caused by the noise from his job as a dye caster for Hallams Castings.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Union warning on over-crowded schools
A teaching union is calling for better school facilities after a primary school teacher suffered a serious injury in a cluttered school corridor that was being used as a temporary classroom. NASUWT said the 37-year-old union member permanently damaged her spine after she fell while trying to navigate the corridor at a Hartlepool school.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: US oil spill prompts UK rig action
Energy secretary Chris Huhne has said the UK government will increase its inspection of drilling rigs and monitoring of offshore compliance with legal standards. In addition to increased scrutiny by his department (DECC), the government has asked a new oil industry-led group, OSPRAG, to report back on the UK’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills.
DECC news release • HSE comment on Deepwater Horizon • The Independent • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Don’t just criticise BP ‘criminals’, try them
Can you have serial crimes but no criminal? Critics say BP’s directors have proved as slippery as the gulf’s oil smeared coastline, with none so far facing criminal charges relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster or other deadly incidents.
The White House blog • US Department of Justice news release • The Progressive • Creators.com • ITUC/Hazards green jobs, safe jobs blog and related BP criticism • Think Progress • CNN News • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Europe: Stress hurts workers, but so what?
Most European company bosses are aware of serious stress problems in their workplaces, but most opt to do nothing concrete about it. New data from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) shows 79 per cent of European managers are concerned by work-related stress, but less than a third of companies have set procedures to deal with it.
European Agency news release and ESENER survey results • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: RAF flew in the face of pregnancy law
The Royal Air Force (RAF) ignored its risk assessment duties and created an “offensive environment” for an officer who was denied the right to stay in her job when she became pregnant.  A tribunal found she had faced discrimination and its recommendations included calling on the Ministry of Defence to carry out an individual risk assessment for each pregnant woman and to consider adjusting her role to enable her to remain in her post.
EHRC news release • Leigh Day and Co news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Fewer heart attacks after smoking ban
There were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in England in the year after July 2007, when the smoking ban came in, a major study suggests. The 2.4 per cent drop was much more modest than that reported in some areas where similar bans have been introduced.
Michelle Sims and others. Short term impact of smoke-free legislation in England: retrospective analysis of hospital admissions for myocardial infarction, BMJ Online first, June 2010. BBC News Online • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Canada: Deathbed reprieve for killer industry?
The battle to end Canada's export of deadly asbestos may be about to be lost, a top human rights group has warned. Kathleen Ruff of the Rideau Institute says: “Economically, the industry is on its deathbed,” but adds that it has reason to believe it will soon receive a multi-million dollar bail-out from Canada’s federal and Quebec governments.
Toronto Star • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Wide social inequalities in work cancers
The occupational cancer burden in the UK has been consistently under-estimated and is concentrated almost entirely in certain social classes, a new study shows.
SOM meeting. Lesley Rushton and others. Occupational and cancer in Britain, British Journal of Cancer, volume 102, pages 1428–1437, 2010 [abstract]. Related HSE report: The burden of occupational cancer in Great Britain, research report 800, HSE, 2010 [pdf] • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: More sickness policies, fewer sick days
The average UK worker took 6.4 days off through sickness last year, the lowest number since 1987, a survey by employers’ organisation the CBI suggests. This compares with 6.7 days in 2007, the last year surveyed.
CBI news release • BBC News Online • The Independent • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Security firm fined for poisoning
Glasgow-based Alpha Group Security Ltd has been fined £7,000 following the poisoning death of a construction site security guard. Thomas Fraser, 37, died of carbon monoxide poisoning at an on-site flat used as a base for employees.
HSE news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Out of control lift kills lift engineer
A defunct Kent-based lift company has been ordered to pay £45,000 in fines and costs following the crushing death of a self-employed lift engineer. J Brown Services Ltd was prosecuted following an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after 35-year-old Andy Bates died while completing the installation of a new lift at a site near Oxford Street in Central London.
HSE news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Britain: Firm guilty after young worker’s death
Flowserve (GB) Ltd has been fined £150,000 following the death of a 21-year-old employee. The prosecution at Lewes Crown Court related to the 7 May 2008 death of Philip Locke, who received fatal injuries when carrying out a pressure test on a high pressure valve.
HSE news release • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Europe: REACH - an opportunity for trade unions
The marketing of chemicals - especially those that could harm human health - has been covered by the EU-wide REACH regulations since 1 June 2007. But ‘REACH: an opportunity for trade unions’, a new publication from the trade union research institute ETUI, concludes real progress, including outlawing the most toxic chemicals from workplaces, “will not happen unless union representatives take ownership of the law.”
REACH: an opportunity for trade unions.
Putting knowledge to work in the workplace, Tony Musu, ETUI, 2010. ISBN 978-287452176-8. Price: 10 Euros. ETUI publications notice and contents and preface [pdf] • Risks 460 • 12 June 2010

Hazards news, 5 June 2010

Britain: TUC prescription on drugs and alcohol
A decent policy is the key to addressing drug and alcohol problems at work, the TUC has said. The union body adds: “Under no circumstances should a drugs or alcohol policy be part of a disciplinary policy.”
TUC guide on drugs and alcohol policies [pdf] and drug testing in the workplace [pdf] • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

USA: Safety rules fail the biotech test
Workers in cutting edge biotechnology labs are facing serious and seriously unregulated risks. “Worker safety cannot be sacrificed on the altar of innovation,” said OHSA head David Michaels.
New York Times • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Firm’s blind eye on safety goggles
A driver whose requests for safety goggles were repeatedly ignored has received a “substantial” sum in compensation after he suffered permanent damage to his eye at work. After being hit in the eye by work equipment, the 57-year-old GMB member working for Coast and Country Housing Limited needed surgery to correct a detached retina and then another operation a year later to remove a cataract.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Nuke plant slip hurt worker’s prospects
A nuclear plant surveyor who suffered a trapped nerve at work in a workplace slip missed out on promotion as a result. The 54-year-old GMB member, whose name has not been released, was forced to go on restricted duties after slipping on liquid while working at Sellafield in Whitehaven.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

USA: Rig spill clean up makes workers sick
A chemical dispersant being used to fight the gulf oil spill is making workers sick, recent reports suggest. The disaster, where BP has failed repeatedly to stem the oil gusher and which started with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers, has led to an increasing clamour for criminal charges to be levelled at BP, the company that owns the well.
Green jobs, safe jobs blog • New York Times • Minnesota Independent • Working In These Times • Truthout • Nola.com • BBC News Online • The Guardian • Fairwarning • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Caterpillar didn’t move after warning
A Unite member working as a painter for Caterpillar needed two operations to correct a hernia following a workplace injury has received more than £7,000 in compensation. Keith Robinson, 43, needed the major surgery after moving a 12ft high and 30ft long walkway to access a work area.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Tory ‘attack dog’ is safety minister
Chris Grayling, a member of parliament referred to in the press as a Conservative Party ‘attack dog’ and who before becoming an MP worked for a union-busting PR firm that creates front organisations for polluting industries is the new health and safety minister.
Green jobs blog • 5 June 2010

Britain: Warning on ‘heavy-handed’ welfare plans
More support and not more penalties is what are needed to get the workless into work, unions, safety professionals and poverty campaigners have told the government. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Unions will support measures to help unemployed and disabled people into work but there is no excuse for such a heavy handed, punitive approach.”
DWP news release • Iain Duncan Smith’s speech • The State of the Nation: Poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the in the UK • TUC news release • PCS news release • IOSH news release • CPAG news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Not quite the right fit note
A new healthy work guide to assist GPs in fitness for work assessments skirts the issue of curing the unhealthy jobs that make many workers sick in the first place. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is behind Healthy Working UK, a website it says will provide GPs and other healthcare professionals with information, training and decision aids concerning the relationship between work and health.
RCGP news release • RCGP Healthy Working UK website • Fit for purpose, Hazards, Number 110, 2010 • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Global: Unions call for action on Foxconn suicides
A global union confederation has said it is “gravely concerned” at the tragic suicides at Foxconn Technology Group in Shenzhen, China. ITUC says the Taiwanese Foxconn group is at the heart of the ‘Made in China’ export model.
ITUC news release • Good Electronics and makeITfair joint statement • Sign up to the Labourstart appeal in support of the Foxconn workers • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Bed makers remove mattress strains
An initiative to address greatly elevated strains risks in bed manufacture has met with some success, says the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The watchdog says “employees in the bed manufacturing industry are around twice as likely to suffer manual handling injuries such as back and upper limb disorders than those in any other manufacturing sector,” with jobs like the manual handling of mattresses particularly problematic.
HSE news release and mattress handling initiative • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Australia: Union bans nuke work
An Australian union has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle. The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) says other unions have expressed strong support for the campaign against uranium, which it has labelled the “new asbestos” of the workplace.
ETU news release and When the dust settles video part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5 • Green jobs, safe jobs blog • Sydney Morning Herald • Brisbane Times • Beyond Nuclear radiation and health webpages and Australia webpages • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: BP spill prompts North Sea discussions
North Sea oil industry leaders have created an advisory group to review procedures in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group (OSPRAG) was formed by the industry body Oil and Gas UK and includes offshore unions Unite and RMT, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and other government agencies.
Offshore Magazine • BBC News Online • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Site death fine increased eight-fold
A building firm has had a fine following the death of a worker increased eight-fold by appeal court judges in Scotland. Discovery Homes (Scotland) Ltd was originally fined £5,000 after admitting a criminal safety breach linked to the death of bricklayer Andrezej Freitag, 55.
Scottish Appeal Court judgment • STV News • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Laundry boss jailed for exploiting immigrants
A Berkshire man who hired 23 illegal immigrants and kept them virtual prisoners at a laundry in Hampshire has been jailed for a year for assisting unlawful immigration. Qing Wu, 42, employed the workers at Universal Chinese Laundry in Alton.
Portsmouth News • BBC News Online • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Fingers chopped off at plastics firm
A plastics recycling factory in St Helens has been fined £15,000 after a worker had parts of two fingers cut off by blades on a high-speed fan. The Roydon Granulation Ltd employee, who has asked not to be named, suffered serious injuries to four fingers on his left hand including the partial amputation of two.
HSE news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Premier league club fails on safety
Premier League football club Aston Villa has been fined after a worker was badly injured in a fall through a roof during the redevelopment of its training ground. The club, its contractor and Mechanical Cleansing Services’ director, Damon Roe, all admitted health and safety offences.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • BBC News Online • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: High voltage shock for stationery worker
A London stationery manufacturer has been fined after admitting removing safety guards and exposing a worker to a high voltage shock that left him permanently disabled. The man was investigating a fault on a plastic welding machine at Chart Design Ltd in Wembley in June 2007 when his fingers came into proximity with components carrying several thousand volts.
HSE news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Britain: Vibration disease costs stonemason his job
A stonemason has been forced to give up his specialist trade after his hands were left permanently damaged by using vibrating tools at work. The 46-year-old from Tadcaster, whose name has not been released, has received £56,000 in compensation after being left with the debilitating condition Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), caused by using vibrating tools on a daily basis in his job as a stonemason for a Yorkshire company.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 459 • 5 June 2010

Hazards news, 29 May 2010

Britain: Random drug tests of ‘dubious legality’
The TUC has warned that random drug tests at work are of ‘dubious legality’ and has called on the government to produce clear guidelines. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said employers cannot ignore drug use at work, but added “the way to tackle this danger is by having proper policies in place for dealing with drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace, rather than introducing random testing which is not only a breach of a person’s right to privacy and dignity, but also of dubious legality.”
TUC news release • Drug testing in the workplace [pdf] • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Supermarket slip costs worker her job
It wasn’t a fall in her own workplace that caused a bakery worker to give up work, it was a visit to the supermarket. But the BFAWU member still received £45,000 in damages after her union stepped in with legal support.
BFAWU news release • Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Union welcome for bookie standards
Betting shop union Community has welcomed a new voluntary standard intended to protect bookies’ staff from violence. The union say the industry-backed measure comes after Community’s intensive lobbying in the wake of a rise in robberies and attacks.
Community news release and betting shops webpages • Safe Bet Alliance news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Bending machine wrecks worker’s hand
A factory worker whose hand was crushed in a defective machine was forced to take five months off work as a result of the horrific injuries. GMB member Darrell Neromilotis, 46, needed two operations to save his hand following the November 2007 incident at outdoor equipment manufacturer Playdale Playgrounds Ltd.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Sellafield fitter hurt by wrong tool
A mechanical fitter who needed surgery on his shoulder following a workplace injury has received more than £5,000 in compensation. Unite member Geoffrey Burns, 59, from Whitehaven had to take six months off work following the incident in August 2008 while working for nuclear firm Sellafield.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: BMA calls for safe shifts for docs
Doctors who work shifts are more prone to health risks and sleep deprivation, a report from BMA Scotland has concluded. The report, produced by the BMA’s Scottish Junior Doctors Committee (SJDC), highlights the dangers of irregular shift patterns on health and performance and makes a series of recommendations to reduce these dangers.
BMA news release and the Shiftwork, rest and sleep: Minimising the risks report • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Firm broke chemicals laws before blaze
The boss of a chemical company that suffered a serious blaze leading to a multi-agency major incident response has claimed the factory had never before had problems with health and safety. However, official papers show Huddersfield-based Grosvenor Chemicals attracted a series of Health and Safety Executive (HSE) improvement notices last year for a catalogue of breaches of safety laws, including regulations covering dangerous, explosive and hazardous substances – and there had been a death at the site.
Environmental Agency news release • Kirklees Council news release • Huddersfield Daily Examiner and related report. • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Global: Will BP’s ‘disaster-prone’ board face jail?
Directors of BP’s London-based global board seem to be above justice when it comes to the firm's serial workplace safety and environmental crimes, claims a new report. Campaigning magazine Hazards, which has been monitoring the multinational’s safety performance for years, says if more attention had been paid to BP’s deadly workplace safety record the risks would have been “shockingly apparent”.
ITUC/Hazards green jobs blog and BP webpages • The Daily Beast • Greenpeace BP logo competition • CBS News • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Business wrong again on regulation
A business group has published updated estimates of the cost to business of regulations without addressing concerns raised last year that the figures were “rigged”. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) ‘Business Burdens 2010’ estimates these safety regulations lead to a combined recurring annual cost to business of £374 million – but deliberately omits from the calculation the savings accrued from preventive action required by regulation – including the savings made by business from operating safely.
BCC news release and Burdens barometer 2010 [pdf] • Who pays?, Hazards magazine, number 106, 2009 • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Blacklist bosses to be named and shamed
Construction bosses who personally sanctioned the use of blacklists in the industry are set to be named and shamed. A tribunal ruling means the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) must now reveal full details relating to a number of test cases – including invoices, correspondence and documentation detailing the business and organisational relationships between The Consulting Association and construction firms must be released under the terms of the ruling.
Construction Enquirer • Blacklist blog • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Freight firm fined after crushing death
A Leeds freight company has been fined after a 59-year-old worker was crushed to death by a case of glass. Alan Fletcher tried to stop the two-tonne case from falling as it was unloaded at Roadways Container Logistics, Leeds Crown Court heard, fining the firm £250,000 plus £100,000 costs.
HSE news release and Fletcher family statement • BBC News Online • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Waste giant fined after landfill death
A major UK waste management and recycling company has been fined after a driver was killed at a Northamptonshire landfill site. Sita UK Limited was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the death of bin driver Gary Carter, 32, at the Cranford landfill site on 4 January 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Contractor guilty after wall crushed worker
Contractor Keith Gardner, trading as KP Gardner Builders, was fined £7,000 last week for breaching health and safety law after a builder broke his back and ribs when a wall fell on him at a London construction site. Jason Lunnon, 41, was seriously injured when he was struck by the falling concrete blocks on the site in Newham.
HSE news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Council fined after dumper truck injury
 Bridgend County Borough Council has been fined after an incident that saw a driver injured when his dumper truck overturned. Council employee Mark Morgan was driving the one tonne vehicle through woodland on 25 September 2008 when the truck began to slide.
HSE news release and risk management webpages • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Britain: Seven-metre fall stops man working
Construction firm Hartog Hutton Ltd and building owner Fluorocarbon Company Ltd have each been fined after a builder suffered fractured vertebrae when he fell from a factory roof in Hertfordshire. Danny Langdon, 63, injured his spine in the seven metre fall on Christmas Eve 2008 and has been off work since.
HSE news release and Shattered lives campaign • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010
Britain: Hazards Conference, 9-11 July 2010, Keele University
The National Hazards Conference, organised by the Hazards Campaign and supported by UK unions, is the biggest annual educational and campaigning event for trade union safety reps and activists.
National Hazards Conference background and registration information • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Morocco: Firm ignores global safety deal
Union reps in Morocco employed by a company part-owned by the multinational ArcelorMittal are demanding the firm respects its global agreement on health and safety. A monitoring mission from the global union federation IMF met last week with shop stewards from SONACID production sites, where workers are reported to be subjected “to psychological pressure” and told they could lose bonuses, other benefits and career opportunities “to convince them not to report accidents,” IMF said.
IMF news release • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

Turkey: Unions necessary to prevent disasters
Unions provide the ongoing scrutiny of workplace safety standards that can keep Turkish mines safe, a union safety expert has said. Speaking in the wake of three methane explosions in three different mines in the last six months, Fikret Sazak said the disasters were a direct result of a lack of proper precautions and strong workers’ union.
Hurriyet Daily News • Today’s Zaman • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

USA: Call for mine manslaughter charges
US legislators and trade unionists last week grilled the owner of a mine where 29 workers died in a blast last month, slamming the “alarming record” of serious safety violations at the Massey Energy mine in West Virginia. Highway billboards calling for a manslaughter prosecution of Massey Energy are appearing around West Virginia and read: “29 Coal Miners Dead, Prosecute Massey for Manslaughter.”
Prosecute Massey for Manslaughter website • Morning Star • . USW blog. Counterpunch • Pittsburgh Tribune-Review • Fairwarning.org • Truthdig • New York Times • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

USA: Confronting blame-the-worker programmes
When US firms get lean-and-mean, injuries can increase, official safety inspections become more likely and workers’ compensation premiums soar. But many employers have found a novel response: hide the injuries.
Labor Notes • USW webpages on BS programmes • Hazards behavioural safety webpages • Risks 458 • 29 May 2010

 

Hazards news, 22 May 2010

Britain: Fighting for your life
Hazards magazine is pressing head with its campaign to defend workplace safety from a retreat from regulation and enforcement. In a pointed reminder to the Conservatives and the Lib Dems – both of whom have called recently for deregulation – a stark poster warns: ‘We didn’t vote to die at work’.
Hazards magazine, issue 110, April-June 2010. Contents list and We didn’t vote to die at work poster • 22 May 2010

USA: Obama to set up oil spill commission
US President Barack Obama has vowed to end the “cosy relationship” between oil companies and US regulators in the light of the Gulf of Mexico disaster. He also condemned “the ridiculous spectacle” of oil executives “falling over each other to point the finger of blame.”
BBC News Online on the presidential commission and the blame game •   The Guardian • In These Times • Center for Public Integrity news report • More on BP’s safety record • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Reps told to be wary of BS
The TUC is warning union reps to be on the lookout for behavioural safety (BS) schemes that pin the blame for injuries and illness at work on “unsafe acts” by workers. The union body says the schemes – which also go by the name of “behavioural modification” or “behaviour based safety” – require that “management should target specific behaviours and aim to change these based on observing and monitoring workers.”
Behavioural safety: A briefing for workplace representatives, TUC, May 2010 • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Industrial action threat at Tube Lines
London Underground union RMT has started a ballot for industrial action by members employed by Tube Lines. It says the move is in response to a continuing threat to jobs and safe working conditions and in support of a decent pay increase.
RMT news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

China: Electronics giant faces suicide controversy
Foxconn Technology, the giant contractor that manufacturers the iPhone and other brand name consumer electronics, has defended its employment standards after the suicide death of an eighth worker.
CBC News • Cult of Mac • Xinhua.net • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Payout after seven floors plunge
A civilian worker with the police who was in a workplace lift that plunged seven floors to the ground has received a “substantial” sum in compensation. The PCS member, who works for the Metropolitan Police in London and whose name has not been released, suffered from neck and back pain as a result of the incident in May 2008 and required treatment for an anxiety disorder after she was left with a fear of getting in lifts.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: UCATT calls for more site protection
Construction union UCATT has vowed to keep the pressure on government over blacklisting and bogus self-employment.
Morning Star • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Action needed on commercial fishing deaths
Britain’s top marine accident investigator has criticised lax attitudes to safety after the deaths of three fishermen in a two week period. The death rate among fishermen was “consistent and disproportionate,” the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said.
MAIB triple investigation report and 2009 Safety Digest [pdf] • Press and Journal • BBC News Online • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

China: Electronics giant faces suicide controversy
Foxconn Technology, the giant contractor that manufacturers the iPhone and other brand name consumer electronics, has defended its employment standards after the suicide death of an eighth worker.
CBC News • Cult of Mac • Xinhua.net • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Fishing boat firm fined following fall
A Scarborough fishing boat operator has been fined after an electrician suffered serious injuries when he fell from a ladder while aboard the company’s boat. Contractor Philip Parcell, 53, from Newby, broke his back in three places, fractured his skull in two places and sustained nerve damage to the left side of his face after plummeting between decks of the Our Julia when it was moored in Scarborough harbour on 16 July last year.
HSE news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: RAF painter disabled by solvents
A services painter who was left with a devastating degenerative neurological condition after he was exposed to dangerous toxins while working in ‘Victorian conditions’ has won his 17-year battle for compensation. Shaun Wood, 52, was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy-P (MSAP), a Parkinson’s type condition which affects the nervous system, after exposure to a cocktail of solvents as a painter and finisher at RAF sites across the world.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

USA: Blood lead levels tied to nerve disease
A study has strenghtened evidence linking long-term lead exposure to the risk of developing the fatal neurological condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. The study found a doubling of blood lead levels led to a near doubling of the chances of developing ALS.
F Fang and others. Association between blood lead and the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, American Journal of Epidemiology, volume 171, Number 10, pages 1126-33, 2010 • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Stress again linked to the recession
Work pressures during the recession have caused a big rise in mental health problems, a mental health charity has said. A survey for Mind suggests that one in 11 British workers has been to their GP for stress and anxiety arising the financial squeeze and 7 per cent said they were prescribed medicines to help them cope.
Mind news release and Taking care of business campaign • BBC News Online • The Independent • The Observer • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Raleigh fined over worker’s death
Bicycle company Raleigh has been fined £72,000 after the death of a forklift truck driver at its Nottingham depot. John Whittington, 59, was hit by a falling girder when part of his forklift truck, which had its forks raised, struck a door frame at the Eastwood site in September 2007.
Nottingham Post • BBC News Online • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

USA: Nurses rally for safe staffing
Some 1,000 registered nurses from around the US rallied on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, on 12 May to show their strong support for legislation to establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios for all hospitals in the country. Brandishing signs that read ‘I’m A Patient Advocate,’ ‘Safe Patient Ratios Save Lives’ and ‘Safe Lift Now,’ members of National Nurses United (NNU), made the case that the care they are able to give their patients is being hampered by long working hours and cutbacks.
AFL-CIO Now blog • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Worker crushed in building collapse
Two firms have been fined a total of £7,000 after part of an office block under construction collapsed, seriously injuring one worker. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted the building’s designer, Peter Wallace of the Wallace Partnership, and the principal contractor, Jack Smith (Builders) Ltd, following the collapse in Kirkham.
HSE news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Firms fined after site fall
Businesses are being urged to take proper precautions when their staff work at height after a West Yorkshire worker sustained serious back injuries when he plunged more than three metres from a terrace retaining wall on a construction site. There were no guardrails in place to prevent Graham Parkin falling from height as he accessed a work area.
HSE news release • Ilkley Gazette • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Confectioner fined after 1 tonne blow
A Telford confectionery company has been prosecuted after a worker’s head was hit with a one tonne force. Magna Specialist Confectioners Ltd (MSC) was fined a total of £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £37,500 by Shrewsbury Crown Court.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: College fined after window cleaner falls
Lincoln College has been fined £1,500 after a window cleaner fell four metres, suffering broken ribs and a serious back injury. James Theaker, 50, from Lincoln, was employed by A Nicoll & Son Ltd, when he was contracted to clean windows at Lincoln College on 4 November 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Britain: Widow calls for insurance fix
An asbestos widow has called on the government to help asbestos victims and their families overcome barriers to obtaining compensation. Caroline Squires from Wacton in Norfolk has voiced her support for an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB) after her husband, Almer, died from asbestos related cancer mesothelioma. Mr Squires, died in October 2008, aged 66.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

Europe: European conference, 10-12 September, Leeds
The 12th bi-annual European Work Hazards Conference is to be held in Leeds from 10 to 12 September 2010. This year’s conference, hosted by the UK Hazards Campaign, “will give hazards activists the chance to meet and work with activists from throughout Europe and other parts of the world”, say the organisers.
European Work Hazards Network (EWHN) website and conference details • Risks 457 • 22 May 2010

 

Hazards news, 15 May 2010

Britain: We didn’t vote to die at work
In a pointed reminder to the new Conservatives and Lib Dem coalition government, a stark poster from Hazards magazine warns: ‘We didn’t vote to die at work’. This “fighting for your life’ edition is intended to provide unions and campaigners with the ammunition they need to defend workplace health and safety standards.
Hazards magazine, issue 110, April-June 2010 • Contents list and We didn’t vote to die at work poster • 15 May 2010

Britain: HSE inspections down to once in a lifetime
A decade ago, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) could be expected to turn up at the average UK workplace once every few years. But unpublished official figures obtained by the trade union safety magazine Hazards show workplaces are now lucky to see the pared back watchdog once in a working lifetime and also show HSE enforcement “has crashed”.
Once in a lifetime - HSE inspection and enforcement drops off the chart, Hazards magazine, number 110, April-June 2010 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Only unions mean real worker involvement
Worker involvement is currently the biggest thing in health and safety, says the TUC. But Hugh Robertson, the union body’s head of safety, has warned the positive chatter from enforcers and employers is not always translating into meaningful consultation at the workplace.
Better talk?, Hazards magazine, issue 110, April-June 2010 • 15 May 2010

USA: More regulation is the solution
Whether the problem is blood spilled in the workplace or oil spilled in the oceans, a series of recent disasters show why more regulation of profit-hungry industries is needed, a US union leader has said. “Twenty-nine dead coal miners in West Virginia, seven dead workers at an oil refinery in Washington State and 11 dead on a Gulf of Mexico oil rig followed by an ecological calamity, all in the span of a month, illustrate in blood the need for more regulation and stiffer enforcement,” said Leo W Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW).
AFL-CIO Now blog • In These Times • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Safety victory for rail union
Rail union RMT says Southern Trains has stepped back from a move that would have undermined rail safety by extending driver-only train operation. The rethink came after RMT threatened industrial action.
RMT news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Temp’s lack of training led to injury
A GMB member who suffered a broken jaw and lost seven teeth in while on placement from an employment agency has received £47,500 in compensation. John McFarlane, 42, from Washington was hit in the mouth by a tool called a warwick after he was forced to work on his own in a new temp placement, after just two days of a promised seven day training programme.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

USA: President’s panel calls for cancer action
Policymakers in the US should abandon a reactionary approach to regulation of cancer causing chemicals and champion a precautionary approach, top advisers to Barack Obama have said. The report from the President's Cancer Panel recommends: “A precautionary, prevention-oriented approach should replace current reactionary approaches to environmental contaminants in which human harm must be proven before action is taken to reduce or eliminate exposure,” adding that this new approach “should be the cornerstone of a new national cancer prevention strategy that emphasises primary prevention.”
Reducing environmental cancer risk: What we can do now, President’s Cancer Panel, 2010 [pdf] • Huffington Post • Effect measure • Washington Post • USA Today • Los Angeles Times • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: London mayor’s ‘smokescreen’ on cuts
Tube union RMT has said London mayor Boris Johnson is throwing up a “smokescreen” under the guise of a Transport Strategy in a bid to deflect attention away from a massive transport cuts package. The union says the mayor’s plan threatens thousands of jobs, ticket office closures and “a systematic undermining of current safety standards.”
RMT news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Union asbestos register pinpoints exposure
A former engineer has spoken of his relief in obtaining compensation after being diagnosed with the incurable asbestos cancer mesothelioma in February 2009. Unite member David Marren, 63, became aware of the diseases caused by asbestos when his union launched a National Asbestos Exposure Register.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Double tragedy for asbestos cancer victim
An asbestos cancer sufferer whose first wife died from the same disease has received compensation from his former employer. Unite member Roland Lakin, 70, from Chorley in Lancashire was diagnosed with the incurable cancer mesothelioma in July 2009 after he nursed his first wife, Thelma, through the disease until she died in 2006.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Chorley Citizen • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Russia: Ninety feared dead in mine blasts
It is feared 90 workers have died in a tragedy at a Siberian coal mine, after a methane gas blast. Russian rescue on 13 May suspended the search for 24 men still missing after the mine disaster that killed at least 66 because of fears of new underground blasts, the emergencies ministry said.
ITAR-TASS news report • BBC News Online. Business Week • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Calling all safety reps!
The TUC wants to hear from trade union safety reps – what you are doing, what concerns you, and what problems and successes you are encountering while wearing your union safety hat. The eighth TUC survey of safety reps is designed to provide the TUC and individual unions with information about their safety reps and their experiences and needs.
TUC survey of safety reps • Deadline for responses, 1 July 2010 • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Global: New impetus to end child labour
Amid growing concerns over the impact of the economic downturn, the International Labour Office (ILO) has warned that efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour are slowing down and has called for a “re-energised” global campaign to end the practice. On 11 May, more than 450 delegates from 80 countries attending the global child labour conference in The Hague agreed on a ‘Roadmap’ aimed at “substantially increasing” global efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour by 2016.
ILO news release, child labour conference website, conference news release and Roadmap [pdf] • Accelerating action against child labour, ILO, May 2010 • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: More overtime equals more heart risk
The more overtime you work, the greater your risk of heart disease, a study of UK workers has found. The study of 6,014 British civil servants, published online this week in the European Heart Journal and part-funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), followed the workers for an average of 11 years.
Marianna Virtanen, Jane E Ferrie, Archana Singh-Manoux, Martin J Shipley, Jussi Vahtera, Michael G Marmot, and Mika Kivimäki. Overtime work and incident coronary heart disease: the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. European Heart Journal, published ahead of print 11 May 2010. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehq124 [abstract and related editorial] • BBC News Online • The Guardian • Los Angeles Times • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Union welcomes detention of fatigue ship
 The temporary detention of a passenger ship in Portsmouth because of concerns that senior officers were suffering from fatigue, was welcomed this week by the seafarers’ union Nautilus. The Bahamas-flagged cruiseship Prince Albert was held for several hours following a Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) inspection on 10 May.
Nautilus news release • MCA news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Managing director gets four year ban
A managing director has been disqualified from running a firm for four years after a 23-year old worker from Kettering fell more than nine metres, leaving him paralysed from the chest down. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted SDI Group UK Ltd, Construction Ltd and Richard Mark Berwick, the managing director of RM Berwick Steel Erection Services Ltd, after the incident on 8 February 2007 in Glossop, Derbyshire.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Coroner calls for better falls standard
The death of a young roofer whose fatal fall was a result of “inadequate” planning and site supervision has prompted a coroner to call on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the industry’s trade body to introduce improved standards. Daniel Hollington, 21, plummeted to his death on 30 October 2007 after falling through a warehouse skylight and landing on the concrete floor 40 feet below.
Thurrock Gazette • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Firm fined after teen has leg crushed
A Wolverhampton manufacturer has been fined £8,000 after a teenage employee was trapped under a load of steel, breaking his leg. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Dranson Ltd after 17-year-old Jamie Meredith was left pinned to the floor in agony after approximately 700 kg of steel fell off a trolley he was pushing.
HSE news release • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Britain: Nurses back dangerous dogs campaign
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has given its full support to a union’s campaign for full legal protection for workers from out-of-control dogs. The union CWU says members who deliver post or repair, maintain and provide residential telephone services have been attacked - and, in some cases, seriously injured - by domestic pets.
CWU news release • CWU Bite Back campaign • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

Global: A trade union guide to ethical trade
The TUC has published an online trade union guide to ethical trade. The guide calls on UK firms to sign up to the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) Base Code. As well as demanding firms require their suppliers work towards providing safety and hygienic working conditions, membership looks for UK firms to seek a supply chain that meets eight other key minimum labour rights standards, including freedom to form and join trade unions, no use of child labour, working hours that are not excessive and freedom from discrimination and abuse.
A trade union guide to ethical trade • Risks 456 • 15 May 2010

 

Hazards news 8 May 2010

 

Britain: Union puts grubby train cabs on report
Train drivers’ union ASLEF is calling on its members to report every grubby cab in the repair book. The union argues that there are two important principles involved – safety and status. 
ASLEF news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

USA: Union called in at anti-union deaths mine
 Three weeks after the 29 non-union miners died at Massey Energy’s, Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the colliery did what other non-union miners have done in recent times when company negligence has caused a disaster. They called in the union participate in the investigation - in the past 15 months in the US, 53 miners have perished; 52 of them worked at non-union operations.
ICEM news report • Washington Times • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Eurostar action vote over lone working
Eurostar train managers have voted by more than 9-to-1 for industrial action over a failure by the company to give assurances they will not introduce lone working. Rail union RMT this week issued an instruction to its train manager members to take industrial action short of a strike.
RMT news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010   

USA: Union called in at anti-union deaths mine
 Three weeks after the 29 non-union miners died at Massey Energy’s, Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the colliery did what other non-union miners have done in recent times when company negligence has caused a disaster. They called in the union participate in the investigation - in the past 15 months in the US, 53 miners have perished; 52 of them worked at non-union operations.
ICEM news report • Washington Times • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Nuclear worker suffers vibration injuries
A GMB member has received £35,000 in compensation after developing a strain injury from prolonged use of vibrating tools. The 49-year-old from Cumbria, whose name has not been released, was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) after working at the Sellafield nuclear waste plant in Calder Bridge for 23 years.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Scaffolder’s leg broken by 300k weight
A scaffolder who needed surgery after a 300 kilo weight fell on his leg has received £30,000 in an out of court payout. Unite member Michael Simpson, 63, was trapped under the heavy metal block when it fell onto his ankle in December 2005 while he was working at Felixstowe Docks.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Staffing cuts leave Tube stations ‘dangerous’
Rail union RMT says “reckless” staffing cutbacks on London’s Tube network have made some stations “a muggers’ paradise”.
RMT news release • The Independent • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

USA: Retailer discouraged accident reports
Californian supermarket chain Raley's Inc has agreed to pay a $550,000 settlement to resolve an unlawful business practices case after pressuring workers out of reporting injuries and claiming compensation. An investigation found Raley's managers routinely attempted to dissuade injured employees from filing compensation claims, suggesting that injured employees use their own health insurance for work-related injuries instead of reporting accidents and injuries as required by state workers' compensation law.
Sacramento Bee • Sacramento Business Journal • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Breast cancer link to shiftwork confirmed
Nearly 2,000 women contract breast cancer every year in the UK because they work night shifts, according to a new report. The figure, published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), is based on 2005 data and attributes 1,969 new cases of breast cancer and 555 deaths from the disease that year to shiftwork.
The Herald • The burden of occupational cancer in Great Britain, research report 800, HSE, 2010 [pdf] • While you were sleeping, Hazards magazine, number 106, Summer 2000 • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Work cancer toll was (and is) under-estimated
Thousands of occupational cancer deaths each year have been missed in official estimates, a new study for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has shown. The report puts the number of cancer deaths in 2005 that were attributable to work at 8,023 – which compares to the 6,000 deaths a year HSE defended as a “best available estimate” until two years ago – and HSE now concedes even the new figures “are likely to be a conservative estimate of the total attributable burden.”
The burden of occupational cancer in Great Britain, research report 800, HSE, 2010 [pdf] • TUC occupational cancer guide [pdf] • Global Unions cancer campaign • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

USA: Young workers at risk
Younger workers in the US are twice as likely as their older counterparts to be treated in hospital emergency departments for work-related injuries, official research has shown. On average each year from 1998 to 2007, about 800,000 workers 15 to 24 years of age were treated in emergency departments and nearly 600 died from work-related injuries.
NIOSH science blog • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Young women 'face work stress risk'
Stress at work can greatly raise the risk of heart disease for women under 50, a study of more than 12,000 nurses suggests. The study, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, concludes work pressure has a greater effect on young women than those in their 50s and 60s.
Yrsa Andersen Hundrup and others. Psychosocial work environment and risk of ischaemic heart disease in women: the Danish Nurse Cohort Study, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 67, pages 318-322, 2010 [pdf] • BBC News Online • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Insurers must not evade payouts
The new government must provide injured workers with enhanced access to compensation, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). The association was commenting as a government consultation, Accessing Compensation, which closed on 5 May.
APIL news release [pdf] • Assessing Compensation consultation, DWP • Law Gazette • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Scotland takes a lead on dogs law
Postal workers’ union CWU has welcomed new dangerous dogs legislation passed unanimously by the Scottish parliament. The new law will give police, councils and courts in Scotland greater powers to impose penalties on the owners of dangerous dogs.
CWU news release and Bite Back campaign • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Right-leaning lobby ignorant on safety
A leading professional body has joined unions and campaigners in criticising a report by a Tory-linked think tank that calls for health and safety deregulation. The report, ‘Health and safety: reducing the burden,’ produced by the right-leaning Policy Exchange, “is marred by a number of conceptual weaknesses,” according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).
IOSH news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Food firm fined for finger loss
A specialist bread manufacturer has been fined after a worker was injured by a dough mixing machine and had his finger amputated. Thambirasaiyah Roy, 39, was using a spiral mixing machine to make dough in October 2006, at the company's factory in Hendon.
HSE news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Steel beams fall on site worker
A Hertfordshire company has been fined after a worker was seriously hurt when he was struck by steel beams falling from a tower crane. Stephen James, 58, was working as a slinger, a person directing crane drivers, for John Doyle Construction Ltd at a residential development in September 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Water firms fined after roof fall
A water services company and its sub-contractor have been fined after a technician fell through the roof of a pumping station in Cambridgeshire, fracturing his back. Technician Matthew Morgan, sub-contracted to Anglian Water Services, fell through an unmarked fragile roof light while taking a reading from a rain gauge on top of a pumping station in Willingham, near Cambridge.
HSE news release and Shattered lives campaign • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

Britain: Stress research and statistics
If you want some official background stats on workplace stress, or a quick look at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) research on the topic, then your task has just got a bit easier. HSE has produced a dedicated ‘Work related stress –research and statistics’ webpage.
HSE stress research and statistics webpage • Risks 445 • 8 May 2010

 

Hazards news, 1 May 2010

Global: Everyone wants a piece of 28 April
It wasn’t just Gordon Brown that saw the necessity to speak out on Workers’ Memorial Day. Around the globe, everyone from world leaders to international safety and health organisations have been chipping in. The 28 April event, which was created by unions and remains a union-led activity, was even the subject of a “presidential proclamation” from Barack Obama.
Presidential Proclamation • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Gordon Brown praises the union effect
The first 28 April commemoration in the UK to have the official stamp of approval has been accompanied by a ringing endorsement for union safety reps from Gordon Brown. A Workers’ Memorial Day statement from the Labour leader, which said he was “proud” a Labour government had given the day official recognition, continued: “It is fitting that this year’s theme for Workers' Memorial Day is 'Unions make work safer.'
ITUC/Hazards 28 April webpages • TUC Workers’ Memorial Day webpages • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Tories face protests over safety axe plans
Tory plans to cut safety laws and to allow firms to opt for self-regulation have prompted angry protests from construction union UCATT. On 27 April, a union organised demonstration was led by someone in full Grim Reaper regalia, carrying a “thanks for the business Dave” placard; other placards warned “Danger – Tory safety policy: Profit before workers’ lives.”
UCATT news releases on the Millbank and John Penrose protests • Morning Star • Hazards Campaign news release and manifesto for workplace safety [pdf] • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Italy: Executives jailed for asbestos deaths
A Sicilian court has jailed three former executives of a shipbuilding company for negligent homicide after 37 workers died from exposure to asbestos. The sentences ranged from three to 7½ years for the three Fincantieri executives, the ANSA news agency reported.
TerraNet • The Province • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: UNISON anger at shortcuts before safety
Public sector union UNISON has revealed that in the last year it has secured nearly £2 million for members with asbestos-related diseases. The union says the figure, released on Workers’ Memorial Day, highlights the risk that many workers face just doing their day-to-day jobs.
UNISON news release • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Dangers in store outside stores
Store workers lined up at Usdaw's annual conference to denounce their employers' disregard for women workers' safety. Usdaw deputy general secretary Paddy Lillis told a thousand Usdaw reps “safety at work should not stop at the store entrance,” adding: “Journeys to or from work can expose workers to the threat of violence and women feel particularly vulnerable waiting at a bus stop in the dark, walking home at night or parking their car in an isolated spot.”
Morning Star • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: These boots weren’t made for walking
A highways worker who had to take three months off work after she was forced to wear unsuitable footwear at work has received £3,600 in compensation. PCS member Deborah Allen developed Achilles tendonitis when her eczema flared up after she was forced to wear synthetic work boots.
Thompsons Solicitors • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Site firms scoop blacklisting awards
Campaigners from the Blacklist Support Group provided some extra entertainment at the swish National Building Awards 2010 dinner at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. The campaign presented its own alternative Blacklister of the Year Awards as the construction industry revellers assembled for the 22 April black tie event.
Blacklist blog • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: ‘Just’ jail term for teen’s site death
 A builder whose negligence led to the death of a 15-year-old boy has failed in a challenge against his jail term at London's Court of Appeal. Colin Holtom admitted the manslaughter of Adam Gosling at the Old Bailey in July 2009 and was sentenced to three years in prison, with appeal court judges agreeing that although long, the sentence was “justifiably severe.”
Essex Chronicle • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Big bonuses for death pit bosses
Directors of the UK’s largest coal producer, which last year killed two mine workers, have received five figure bonuses to top up their six figure salaries. However, the bonuses would have been higher still if health and safety targets had been met.
UK Coal preliminary financial results for year ended December 2009 [pdf] and Financial results presentation [pdf] • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Global: BP accused over rig safety
Oil giant BP is facing accusations that it lobbied against new offshore safety rules and breached “numerous regulations” at a rig that exploded on 20 April, where 11 workers are missing presumed dead.
Huffington Post • The Guardian • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Confectionery giant fined for machine death
The UK's largest confectionery firm has been convicted of two criminal safety breaches and fined £300,000 after an employee was crushed to death in one of its sweet-making machines. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Tangerine Confectionery Limited following the death of employee Martin Pejril at its Poole factory.
HSE news release • Bournemouth Echo • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Britain: Family farm fined for crushing death
A family farm in Scotland has been fined £20,000 after a farmworker was crushed to death by a one tonne concrete panel. On 3 June 2008, Colin Hill was helping to build a perimeter wall on an open hay shed at Hamilton Farmers (East Lothian), when the pre-cast concrete panel toppled over and crushed him.
HSE news release • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

Global: Asbestos exports are ‘a crime’
An Indian health group is accusing Jean Charest of backing human rights abuses because of the Quebec premier's views on asbestos exports to the country. Mohit Gupta of the Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India says Charest is dismissing Indians as second-class citizens.
Ban Asbestos India news release • BWI news release • Winnipeg Free Press • Risks 454 • 1 May 2010

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