Hazards news, 5 May 2012

Britain: Bad stats and policies add up to deadly workplaces
A government safety strategy ‘built on myth and dogma’ is making the UK’s workplaces more deadly, unions have warned.
Unite news release • UNISON news release • UNISON Scotland news release • PCS news release • NASUWT news release • CWU news release • TUC 28 April Workers’ Memorial Day events listing • ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day webpages, including a worldwide list of events and resources and the ITUC/Hazards 28 April facebook page • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

USA: Obama drops child farm labour rules
The Obama administration has scrapped a plan that would prevent some children from working in dangerous farm jobs. The move has provoked a furious response from safety and child welfare advocates, who claim the president caved in to election-year pressure from the farming lobby and Republicans.
Child Labor Coalition news release • CPR blog • Washington Post • Daily Kos • Star Tribune • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Unions condemn ‘dangerous’ low risk line
The official decision to abandon official spot-check inspections in ‘low risk’ sectors including docks, agriculture, quarries and retail ignores the real dangers of the jobs and is driven by government-imposed cuts in the safety enforcement budget. Safety campaigners, speaking out on the 28 April, Workers’ Memorial Day, warned the hands-off policy sends a signal to businesses they need not be so concerned about the safety of their staff.
Usdaw news release • Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Thompsons Solicitors news release • The Independent • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Global: Italian widows highlight worker suicides
The grieving wives and family members of more than 25 businessmen who have taken their own lives because of financial woes linked to Italy's economic crisis took to the streets of Bologna on 4 May. The organisers of the march, including the Italian Women's Union, believe there has been too little dialogue and not enough state support for families that have fallen into despair over unemployment, bankruptcies and loan defaults.
ILO news release and full report, World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy • TUC Touchstone blog • The Guardian • BBC News Online • Hazards occupational suicide webpages • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Hull ship’s crew ‘has had enough’
The crew of tanker anchored outside Hull has called for union help after being left without adequate food and water. The owners of the Liberian registered tanker Leon had refused to take on food at the port, claiming UK prices were too high.
ITF news release • Nautilus news release • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Dismay at Sunday trading laws move
The government’s use of emergency legislation to force through a suspension of Sunday trading rules during the Olympics has left shopworkers “bitterly disappointed”, their union has said. MPs voted through The Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill on 30 April, after just nine hours consideration and debate in both the House of Commons and House of Lords.
Usdaw news release • House of Commons votes, 30 April 2012 • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: BT engineer speaks up on hearing risks 
A British Telecom engineer from Sheffield who suffers from a high pitch buzzing in his ears after years of working with faulty equipment is warning others of the risks. Stephen Starosta has now received £7,500 from BT to cover the cost of equipment to help deal with his tinnitus, which can be caused by exposure to excessive noise.
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Global: Top asbestos industry lobby group folds
The organisation that has for decades spearheaded the asbestos industry’s global sales drive has folded. The closure of the Quebec-based Chrysotile Institute has been welcomed by unions and asbestos campaigners.
CLC statement • International Ban Asbestos Secretariat • Chrysotile Institute notice of intention to surrender its charter, Canada Gazette • Montreal Gazette • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Tanker drivers say safety is the top priority
An erosion of safety standards is the number 1 concern for tanker drivers, their union has said. Conditions for drivers - who on average carry 36,000 to 42,000 litres of flammable liquid on board a tanker every time they make a journey - have been eroded for years, Unite says. 
Morning Star • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Tube train narrowly escapes disaster
Tube union RMT has demanded an independent investigation into London Underground maintenance and staffing cuts. The call came after photographic evidence emerged suggesting that a train that hit the buckled lining of a Bakerloo Line tunnel during rush hour on Thursday 26 April came within inches of being “ripped open like a sardine can with potentially lethal consequences.”
RMT news release • Daily Mirror • The Guardian • London Evening Standard • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Union fears the ‘Bad Tempered Games’
Train drivers’ union ASLEF believes Londoners have no idea how much disruption the Olympics will cause to their commutes – and is worried about angry passenger reaction when they are faced with travel chaos during the Olympics and Paralympics.
ASLEF news release • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Electric shock director turns on HSE
A director of a company prosecuted after pleading guilty to criminal safety offences has claimed the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) only took the case to recoup is costs. Derek Offord, 45, suffered serious burns to his left arm and knee and open wounds to his forearm and left palm after receiving an electric shock while working at coating and treatment firm Tecvac Ltd’s factory in Swavesey, near Cambridge.
HSE news release and electricity webpages • SHP Online • Hazards magazine • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Waste giant Veolia burned agency worker
Serial safety offending waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services has been fined after an agency worker was seriously burned by hot ash at an incineration depot in Deptford, London. The Eastern European employee sustained 17 per cent burns to his body whilst cleaning ash from a filtration hopper at the Veolia plant on 29 December 2009.
HSE news release • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Global brick maker fined after worker crushed
The world’s largest brick manufacturer has been fined £20,000 after a worker suffered serious injuries when he was crushed on a conveyor belt at its Worcestershire factory. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Wienerberger Ltd, which had global revenues of £1.65bn in 2011, following the incident on 19 October 2009 at the company's site at Hartlebury, near Kidderminster.
HSE news release • Kidderminster Shuttle • Wienerberger 2011 annual report • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Roofing boss tagged for dumping asbestos
The boss of a roofing firm has been electronically tagged after flytipping asbestos. Wallace Sharpless, who runs Advanced Roofcare in Gillingham, attempted to dump the hazardous material at two scrapyards on an industrial estate but both refused to take the asbestos.
Medway Council news release • Kent Courier • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Asia: Warning over epidemic of workplace deaths
Asia is facing an onslaught of fatal occupational diseases, but this suffering is ignored, unreported and uncompensated, according to a new report by a labour rights group. Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) says unsafe workplaces are creating untold numbers of “invisible victims of development.”
AMRC news release and report webpage, draft report, postcards and videos • AFL-CIO now blog • The Guardian • CNN • South China Morning Post •
Check out what happened worldwide on 28 April • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Farm firm partner fined after quad bike injuries
A partner in a Derbyshire farm business has been fined after an employee suffered life-changing injuries when his quad bike overturned. The 42-year-old employee of JD and RL Spalton, who has asked not to be named, was driving the all terrain vehicle (ATV) along a track at Lodge Hill Farm, Barton Blount, on 9 June 2010.
HSE news release • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Contractor fined after demolition tragedy
A building contractor has been fined after a worker was killed by a falling piece of masonry dislodged by his own son during a poorly planned demolition job. Agency workers Jamie Ford, 24, and his father, Stephen Ford, 50, were working under the control of contractor Do It Al to demolish a barn at Dunbury Farmhouse in Winterbourne Houghton near Blandford in November 2008.
HSE news release and demolition webpages • Construction Enquirer • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Britain: Worker hurt by Crazy Frog
A fairground ride operator has been convicted of a criminal safety offence after a worker was thrown from a ride during the 2010 May Bank Holiday fair in Barnard Castle. Martin Brown, now 19, was working for Elliot Crow, of ride owners Alan Crow Amusements, as a ride attendant on the Crazy Frog Ride.
HSE news release • Northern Echo • Risks 554 • 5 May 2012

Hazards news, 28 April 2012

Britain: Remember the dead, fight for the living
The TUC has called on unions and safety campaigners to make 28 April a day of action to defend health and safety from attacks by the press, politicians and employers. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said it was “reckless employers that we need to target and the government’s rhetoric will only encourage yet more of them to think they can get away with unsafe workplaces – without fear of ever getting a visit from the HSE or their local council.”
TUC news release and 28 April events listing • ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day webpages, including a worldwide list of events and resources and the ITUC/Hazards 28 April facebook page • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

USA: Government contracts go to deadly firms
Throughout the United States, government agencies at the state, local and federal levels routinely award construction contracts to companies known to be unsafe, according to the independent watchdog Public Citizen. Its report, ‘Contract killers,’ highlights cases where companies with suspect safety records win government contracts around the country, often with disastrous consequences.
Contract killers: Government agencies award taxpayer dollars to contractors that disregard worker health and safety, Public Citizen, 2012 [pdf] • The Pump Handle • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Unions and industry oppose offshore rule change
Trade unions and the oil and gas industry have joined forces to warn of the dangers of the European Union’s proposed regulation of offshore oil and gas safety. The concerns were raised this week in a joint statement from Oil & Gas UK and offshore unions RMT and Unite.
Joint UK industry and trade union position paper: On the European Commission’s proposals for a Regulation on the ‘safety of offshore oil and gas prospection, exploration and production activities’ [pdf] • Oil & Gas UK news release • BBC News Online • . STV News • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

India: Many confirmed dead in blanket factory collapse
At least 23 workers are now believed to have died in a factory collapse in Jalandhar, India. The majority of those killed in the 15 April tragedy were migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Police have arrested the factory owner, Shital Vij, who has been charged with ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’, press reports say.
DNA India. • India Express • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: We’ll tell you why we don’t like Sundays at work
Shopworkers shouldn’t lose their Sundays at this summer’s Olympics. Delegates at Usdaw's Annual Delegate Meeting (ADM) reaffirmed the union's opposition to the deregulation of Sunday trading, calling on the government to drop plans to suspend Sunday trading restrictions during the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer.
Usdaw news release and news release on the government employment rights changes • Morning Star • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Global: Justice fears jeopardise sea accident probes
Almost half of all seafarers are reluctant to assist enquiries into casualties and other dangerous incidents at sea because of concerns about their treatment at the hands of the legal authorities, a study has found. Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) found: “Concerning casualty inquiries and accident investigations, 46 per cent of seafarers who answered the question said that they would be reluctant to cooperate fully and openly with such inquiries.”
SRI news release • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Further dogs law delay criticised by CWU
Postal workers’ union CWU has said it is disappointed the government has launched another consultation on dangerous dogs, “instead of the action which is desperately needed to protect thousands of victims of dog attacks.” CWU said while this Defra consultation takes place, 12 postal workers will be attacked every day.
CWU news release • CWU 'Bite back' campaign • Defra news release and consultation • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Union warning on heavy-handed Olympic guards
Journalists’ union NUJ has said it will act to defend journalists from heavy-handed  treatment by security staff at the Olympics. The union is concerned photographers taking pictures outside the Olympic site have been forcibly stopped from filming by security staff.
NUJ news release and video of the incident • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Scaffolder forced out of his job by injuries
An experienced scaffolder with ThyssenKrupp Palmers Limited suffered a leg injury so severe when he was trapped by a pallet of scaffolding poles he was forced to leave the industry. But in response to a Unite-backed compensation claim, the firm not only settled Craig Cording’s claim out of court for a “significant” sum but also paid for his physiotherapy, rehabilitation and training as a welder. Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Firefighter compensated for asbestos cancer
A former firefighter who was exposed to asbestos at work and recently developed an incurable cancer has received compensation with help from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU). John Stone, 64, was diagnosed with asbestos-related mesothelioma in March 2011.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Canada: Action call after sawmill deaths
The United Steelworkers (USW) is calling for urgent action after workers were killed at two sawmills in British Columbia (BC), Canada. USW, which represents the sawmill workers, also is urging provincial authorities to make public information it hopes could prevent further tragedies.
USW news release • CBC News • Vancouver Sun • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Disease campaigners win asbestos reprieve
The government has said it will for the moment exempt people suffering from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma from highly contentious measures in its legal reforms. The concession came after a well-organised national campaign co-ordinated by the Asbestos Victims Support Groups’ Forum UK (AVSGF), which argued the changes in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill would deny justice to victims of often fatal occupational diseases.
AVSGF news release [pdf] • Commons debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, 24 April 2012, Hansard report • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Parent firm liable for work-related disease
An asbestosis sufferer from London has won an historic case at the Court of Appeal against former global asbestos giant Cape plc. Law firm Leigh Day & Co says the ‘landmark’ judgment sets a new legal precedent for holding parent companies accountable for work-related health problems in employees of their subsidiaries.
Leigh Day & Co news release • Uxbridge Gazette • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Top Tories were behind safety bashing headlines
A series of headlines ridiculing workplace safety rules, some taken up by ministers to justify the government’s deregulatory plans, were part of a strategy cooked up by Tory high command to try and to spin the government out of trouble. Conservative ministers have been ordered by Downing Street to come up with eye-catching right-wing initiatives to deflect media attention from the government's Budget woes.
The Independent • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Cut price coins could cause allergies
Fears are being raised that high nickel 5p and 10p coins being introduced into circulation could cause skin problems. Dermatologists have warned “consideration must be given to the potential costs to health from skin disease related to nickel exposure (allergic contact dermatitis and hand dermatitis); financial implications to the NHS for clinical management of affected people; and other taxpayer costs (inability to work because of hand dermatitis related to nickel allergy).”
Danielle T Greenblatt, David J Gawkrodger and Ian R White. Allergy risk from Royal Mint’s new nickel plated steel coins should be publicly assessed, British Medical Journal, volume 344:e2730, 2012, published online 19 April 2012. BBC News Online • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Mass lead poisoning at recycling firm
A London recycling company has been fined after large numbers of its employees were found to have “significantly high” levels of lead in their blood, with two exhibited symptoms of poisoning so serious they required drastic chelation therapy. Metal and Waste Recycling Ltd in Edmonton had bought and was stripping some lead-sheathed copper cabling from British Telecom (BT) after the network began to be changed from copper to fibre optic cable.
HSE news release and 9 November 2009 HSE statement on lead exposure • Hazards magazine ‘Dangerous lead’ report • HSE lead webpages • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: How did growing mushrooms get so dangerous?
A mushroom grower has been prosecuted after placing its poorly trained migrant workforce at deadly risks. Suffolk Mushrooms Limited, which had spent over £1m on a factory refurbishment, didn’t spend a few hundred pounds to keep its employees safe and housed the 37 migrant workers from Eastern Europe in a disused office block with a potentially unsafe gas boiler.
HSE news release • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Australia: Toyota faces legal action safety rep sackings
Toyota in Australia targeted safety reps and shop stewards for redundancy because of their union activity, industrial union AMWU has charged. AMWU’s David Smith said the treatment of unionised workers and health and safety representatives was disgusting and could have wider ramifications.
AMWU news release • Maurice Blackburn Lawyers news release • Google News • Herald Sun • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Drycleaning chain fined for safety failings
A chain of drycleaners in Bedford has been fined after putting workers' lives at risk from a gas boiler a safety inspector described as ‘a disgrace’. Bedford Magistrates' Court heard inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered the gas-fired steam boiler was severely corroded, the flue was cracked and damaged, several burners were not working properly and there was a high risk that workers and members of the public were being exposed to toxic carbon monoxide emissions.
HSE news release • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Britain: Egg firm shells out after fingers are cut off
Egg company Bumble Hole Foods Ltd has been fined after a worker severed two fingers while cleaning a drain on a production line. Redditch Magistrates' Court was told Bumble Hole Foods Ltd were aware of the risks following a similar incident in 2008.
HSE news release • Bromsgrove Advertiser • Risks 553 • 28 April 2012

Hazards news, 21 April 2012

Britain: Workers’ Memorial Day is days away!
Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, is nearly upon us, and looks set to send a serious message to the government about its deadly safety plans. The TUC’s call for a Day of Action to Defend Health and Safety is being heard nationwide, with events planned all the way from Penzance to Aberdeen, and Newport to Newcastle.
IOSH news release and 28 April tweets #workersmemorialday, mentioning @IOSH_tweets.
TUC resources: 28 April webpage and events listing, Infographic, guides to dealing with the press [pdf] and lobbying MPs [pdf] and 2012 Workers' Memorial Day and TUC Day of Action list of activities.
Check out the newly revamped ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day webpages, including a worldwide list of events and resources and the ITUC/Hazards 28 April facebook page • See what happened worldwide on 28 April 2011 •
Other resources: Get kitted out with Hazards Campaign forget-me-knot ribbons, free posters, lapel/stationery stickers [pdf order form], window stickers and t-shirts [pdf order form] - the perfect attire for a 28 April event. Further information from the Hazards Campaign, telephone 0161 636 7557 • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

USA: Concern after oil worker is boiled to death
California's largest oil company failed to warn employees of the dangers in an oil field where a worker was sucked underground and boiled to death last year, state authorities found - and then they fined the firm $350. The small regulatory penalty has angered union leaders and reignited a debate over the risks of the extraction technique that led to the worker's death.
Los Angeles Times • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: TUC cops safety minister in high heels scandal
Health and safety minister Chris Grayling has been criticised for intending to use a story invented last week by the Daily Mail to justify an attack on workplace safety rules.
Stronger Unions • Policy Exchange conference, 18 April and YouTube clip of Chris Grayling’s speech • National Hairdressers’ Federation news release • Daily Mail • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Bird-brained Daily Mail tells another hair-raising lie
If you want facts served along with your news and you are a Daily Mail reader, you’ll have been left sadly wanting over the last few days. The paper condemned a supposed ban on high heels for hairdressers in “nanny state proposals being drawn up in Brussels” - but the European Commission has no intention to regulate on high heels and the paper’s claims are based on a scaremongering press release from the National Hairdressers’ Federation, an industry lobby group.
HSE statement • London Fire Brigade statement • National Hairdressers’ Federation news release. • Daily Mail getting it wrong on seagulls and high heels • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

South Africa: Anglo American blamed for dust disease
A South African miner who believes he contracted tuberculosis as a result of digging gold on behalf of Anglo American this week used the mining giant’s annual meeting to demand compensation. Daniel Seabata Thakamakau, 66, represents more than 1,200 former miners, many with silicosis and tuberculosis, who are suing Anglo American in a mass tort action.
Leigh Day & Co news release • ACTSA news release • Unite news item [pdf] • The Guardian • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Global: Passenger jet’s dive exposes pilot fatigue dangers
An incident in which an Air Canada passenger jet dived and caused injuries to 16 of those onboard provides a dire warning of the dangers of pilot fatigue, UK pilots’ union BALPA has said. A report this week by Canada’s Transport Safety Board found a “confused and disoriented” Air Canada co-pilot had just awoken from a “controlled rest period” when he put the airliner into a dive.
BALPA news release • Transport Safety Board incident report • Globe and Mail • BBC News Online • Channel 4 News • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Tube bosses taking ‘cavalier risks’
London Underground (LUL) bosses faced with a self-inflicted Olympics station-staffing crisis are taking “cavalier risks” with passenger and staff safety, the rail union RMT has warned.
RMT news release • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: RMT fears over Tube strike plans
Rail union RMT is demanding safety assurances from Transport for London (TfL) after the company said it aims to run services during next week’s strike action regardless of whether essential maintenance and repairs work has been being carried out. The safety-critical Emergency Response Unit will be joining the strike action, the union said, heightening its concerns.
RMT news release • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Olympic 'bullying' risk for staff
The union GMB has warned that over one million shop and distribution workers face being ‘bullied’ by retailers that extend Sunday opening hours during the London Olympics and Paralympics. GMB is concerned people will be pressured into working longer shifts.
Morning Star • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Apprentice abuses must end, says UCATT
The government must take urgent action to stop safety and other abuses of apprenticeship schemes, the construction union UCATT has said. The union was commenting after “serious safety concerns” were revealed in a BBC Panorama investigation broadcast earlier this month.
UCATT news release • The Great Apprentice Scandal, Panorama, BBC, 2 April 2012 • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Finland: Workplace injuries up again
Workplace injuries in Finland are following ‘a fairly alarming’ upward trend, latest figures show. Raili Perimäki, occupational safety expert with the union SAK, said the worsening statistics show those responsible for occupational safety should be required by law to undertake training in occupational safety and there must be more resources for safety inspection.
Trade Union News from Finland • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Physio injured in wet floor fall
A physiotherapy technical instructor needed two operations after her shoulder was dislocated in a workplace fall. The 61-year-old from Nottingham, a member of the Chartered Society for Physiotherapy (CSP), had to take early retirement following the incident.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Lorry driver injured by falling fridge
A lorry driver damaged his shoulder after his employer failed to act on his warnings about the dangerous way vehicles were being loaded with scrap and rubbish. Unite member Alan Snook, 61, from Frome, Somerset, was working as a shunter for Wincanton Logistics on the firm’s Comet contract when the incident happened in July 2009.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Global: Study highlights workplace lung cancer risk
A new study has confirmed the high numbers of lung cancers related to work. The research study in the Lombardy region of northern Italy showed significantly increasing risks of lung cancer for exposure to asbestos, crystalline silica and nickel-chromium exposure.
OH-world.org blog.  S de Matteis and others. Impact of occupational carcinogens on lung cancer risk in a general population. International Journal of Epidemiology, published Online First, 31 March 2012 • L Rushton and others. Occupation and cancer in Britain. British Journal of Cancer, volume 102, pages 1428–1437, 2010 • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Europe: Industry opposes strain injury rules
Employers’ lobby groups from across Europe are opposing rules to reduce workplace risks from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). In a letter to Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the European Commission’s Industry Committee, and László Andor, the Social Affairs Commissioner, nine European employers’ associations say the European legislative initiative is “neither necessary nor desirable”.
ETUI news report • Joint Employers' letter on MSD [pdf] • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Government plans a ‘big mistake’ on work diseases
A campaigner who won a Supreme Court battle last month on industrial disease compensation has warned government legal aid plans could leave others without access to justice. Ruth Durham, who was involved in a landmark asbestos cancer compensation case, says a law being pushed through by the government would force those who contract illnesses at work to pay legal costs out of their damages.
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Full judgment exposes blacklisting scandal
A tribunal judge has issued a damning verdict on construction giant Carillion's use of blacklisting - and the weak laws which denied its victims justice. The judgment by Judge Snelson, which had been reserved from January, said: “It seems to us that he has suffered a genuine injustice and we greatly regret that the law provides him with no remedy.”
Blacklist blog • Morning Star • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Call centre workers suffer voice problems
One in four call centre workers suffer voice problems because managers are failing to properly protect their health, a study has found. Researchers commissioned by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) found around one in 10 call handlers had been diagnosed with a voice problem, while the same proportion said their work was now suffering because of the stress placed on their vocal cords.
IOSH news release • Working voices: An epidemiological study of occupational voice demands and their impact on the call centre industry, IOSH, 2012 [pdf] • Hazards voice loss webpages • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Trustee fined after death of worker
A trustee of an estate Trust has been fined after an employee was crushed to death when a tractor overturned and landed on him. Christopher Fox, 60, from Osberton near Worksop, was killed instantly when the tractor overturned during a tree felling operation. HSE news release • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Britain: Director fined after scaffold collapse
A former scaffolding company director has been fined after two employees were injured in a scaffold collapse. Robert Leslie Butler, 46, a director of the now defunct company RB & Son Scaffolding Limited at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to criminal safety offences and was fined £3,000 by Nottingham magistrates and ordered to pay costs of £2,000.
HSE news release and HSE falls webpages • Risks 552 • 21 April 2012

Hazards news, 14 April 2012

Global: The world is gearing up for 28 April…
Unions and campaigners are gearing up for 28 April, Workers’ Memorial Day – the largest annual health and safety event anywhere in the world. Global union federation ITUC and UK-based Hazards magazine are tracking the events, resources and strategies unions and safety campaign groups are employing worldwide to publicise workers’ rights to a safe workplace and to expose efforts by governments to deregulate safety.
Check out the newly revamped ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day webpages, including a worldwide list of events and resources and the ITUC/Hazards 28 April facebook page • See what happened worldwide on 28 April 2011 •
TUC resources: 28 April webpage, Infographic, guides to dealing with the press [pdf] and lobbying MPs [pdf] and 2012 Workers' Memorial Day and TUC Day of Action list of activities• Other resources: Get kitted out with Hazards Campaign forget-me-knot ribbons, posters, lapel/stationery stickers [pdf order form], window stickers and t-shirts [pdf order form] - the perfect attire for a 28 April event. Further information from the Hazards Campaign, telephone 0161 636 7557 • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Action call after another rail runaway
Rail union RMT has renewed its call for secondary protection to prevent rail runaways after another potentially fatal incident late last month. A road-rail dumper truck ran free for a quarter of a mile before hitting buffers at Bradford Interchange station on 25 March.
RMT news release • RAIB investigation notice • ITV News • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

USA: Regulatory axe aims to speed up chicken plants
A plan to privatise meat inspection in the US linked to a government assault on regulation has been criticised widely for putting public health at risk. But the “despicable plan” will have other casualties, primarily workers in the already notoriously hazardous sector, according to law professor Rena Steinzor, president of the Center for Progressive Reform.
CPR blog • Working in These Times • USDA proposal • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Teachers blast ‘reckless’ safety cuts
The government’s ‘reckless’ and ‘simplistic’ attitude to health and safety threatens to put the lives of children and adults in schools and colleges at risk, a teaching union has warned. Delegates at April annual conference of NASUWT condemned the removal of ‘vital’ health and safety protections in the workplace.
NASUWT news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

USA: Amazon warehouse jobs push workers to the limit
Claims by web retail giant Amazon that it has an industry beating safety record have been called into question. A former warehouse safety official said in-house medical staff were asked to treat wounds, when possible, with bandages rather than refer workers to a doctor for stitches, a treatment that could require federal reports.
The Seattle Times • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

USA: Shiftworkers face diabetes and obesity risk
Shiftworkers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to a new study. The researchers are calling for more measures to reduce the impact of shiftworking.
OM Buxton and others. Adverse metabolic consequences in humans of prolonged sleep restriction combined with circadian disruption, Science Translational Medicine, volume 4, number 129, 11 April 2012 [abstract and related news release] • BBC News Online • The Huffington Post • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Work pressure makes school staff sick
School workers are falling ill as a result of the pressure of their jobs, teaching unions have warned. ATL has said in the current academic year four in ten education staff have visited the doctor and a quarter taken sick leave because of job pressure.
NUT news release • ATL news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Overheated schools cause lethargy
Many classrooms are so overheated that sweltering pupils are finding it impossible to study, a union survey suggests. NASUWT said its survey shows that one in three teachers have had to give lessons in temperatures that are over 30 degrees celsius.
NASUWT news release • BBC News Online • The case for a legally enforceable maximum workplace temperature, TUC, 2009 [pdf] • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Bullies and cyberbullies blight schools
Over two-thirds of teachers have experienced or witnessed workplace bullying in the last 12 months and one in five teachers have left their job because of bullying from colleagues or managers, a survey by teaching union NASUWT has found.
NASUWT news releases on the bullying epidemic and use of social media to bully • The Guardian news reports on schools bullying and cyberbullying • BBC News Online • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Border Force falls down on footwear
A UK Border Force worker slipped and suffered a catalogue of injuries because he hadn’t been provided with the replacement work boots he had requested. Just a week before the incident the PCS member, whose name has not been released, had written to bosses saying he needed the new boots as a matter of urgency.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Working feet and footwear, TUC guide, 2008 [pdf] • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Hospital injury shows need for proper staffing
A hospital worker needed two operations on her shoulder and had to take over a year off work after she was injured helping a 20-stone patient. The 53-year-old CPS member, whose name has not been released, has been left unable to lift heavy items with her left arm after the incident at Alcester Community Hospital in Warwickshire.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Train door slamming caused tinnitus
A train driver was left unable to carry out his job for a year after his hearing was damaged by an explosion-like bang of a faulty door. The ASLEF member, who is employed by Northern Rail Ltd and was driving a train from Manchester Oxford Road station to Liverpool Lime Street at the time of the incident, was left with tinnitus in his right ear which meant he was unable to drive trains for almost a year.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Signal box fumes caused disabling chronic fatigue
A railway worker who was exposed to chemical fumes at work went onto to develop Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). It is not known if the 44-year-old, from Liskeard in Cornwall, will ever recover from the debilitating condition which has already seen him lose his job as a signalman for Network Rail.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Daily Mail’s insane crowing on gull rescue
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) myth busting challenge panel launched this month to counter the ‘health and safety gone mad’ stories that appear routinely in the press has had an inauspicious start. The Daily Mail, which has a history of running myth-propagating stories about health and safety ‘jobsworths’ and killjoys, wanted HSE’s view on an incident when 25 firefighters called by RSPCA to rescue a gull decided it wasn’t a justified use of resources, but stuck around in case a member of the public got in to difficulty in their own rescue bid.
DWP news release • HSE Myth Busters Challenge Panel • Morning Star • Daily Mail and related story • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: HSE confirms docks rules are for the chop
A union prediction that essential safety rules protecting dockworkers were to be targeted as part of the government’s drive to cull or revise 84 per cent of workplace safety regulations has been confirmed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The Docks Regulations 1988 are included in the latest list of regulations HSE has lined up for the axe, despite a union warning that this will lead to the removal of safeguards in an industry with a fatality rate at least five times and possibly over 20 times the national average.
Proposals to remove fourteen legislative measures, CD239. Consultation closes 4 July 2012 • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Controversy over accident reporting changes
A dramatic reduction in the number of workplace injuries required to be reported by employers will deliver scant savings to business but could mean early warnings of problems are missed. Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB, commented: “There will be 30,000 fewer accidents reported, which is not the same as 30,000 fewer accidents.”
DWP news release •  HSE news release • BCC news release • BBC News Online • The Telegraph • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Another seven figure fine for Network Rail
Network Rail has been fined £4m over the Grayrigg crash in Cumbria in which an 84-year-old woman died and 88 people were injured. Margaret Masson died after the Virgin train derailed on the West Coast Main Line in February 2007, after going over a “degraded” set of points.
ORR news release • Network Rail statement • ASLEF news release • RMT news release • BBC News Online • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

India: Taking education into the stone quarries
A union-backed mobile school is providing education for children in India who might otherwise be employed in some of the most hazardous industries around. The school-on-wheels is based in Jodhpur in the Western State of Rajasthan, and will serve families working in the stone quarrying industry.
BWI news release • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Britain: Firm fined after driver impaled on steel tube
A Darlington engineering firm has faced a criminal prosecution after a delivery driver was seriously injured when a 6cm diameter steel bar passed through his chest. Jason Ripley, 42, was delivering timber to Henry Williams Group Limited, which pleaded guilty to a criminal breach of safety law was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,424.80.
HSE news release • Report in The Sun, 16 November 2009 • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Bangladesh: Dangerous work campaigner is brutally killed
A Bangladeshi union rights activist and former garment worker was tortured and murdered last week in the country’s capital Dhaka, according to authorities. Aminul Islam's body was dumped outside of the city and was found by local police on 5 April. ILRF news release • Worker Rights Consortium memo regarding the murder • ABC News.
ACTION: Sign up to the ILRF letter to the prime minister of Bangladesh calling for a thorough and impartial investigation • Risks 551 • 14 April 2012

Hazards news, 7 April 2012

USA: Bad work is more costly than you think
A study that revealed the annual “economic burden” of occupational injury and illness in the US is at least $250 billion underestimates the true costs, government workplace health researchers have revealed. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) experts, writing on the agency’s blog, note “the national investment in addressing occupational illness and injuries is far less than for many other diseases with lower economic burden even though occupational illnesses and injuries are eminently preventable.”
NIOSH blog • JP Leigh. Economic burden of occupational injury and illness in the United States, Milbank Quarterly, volume 89, number 4, pages 728-772, December 2011 [pdf] • Hazards ‘We didn’t vote to die at work’ webpages • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Safety reps do the business
Union safety reps have saved ‘countless lives’, a new TUC briefing has revealed. The message comes in the latest bulletin from TUC ahead of its national 28 April Day of Action to defend health and safety.
Defend health and safety: 28 April Day of Action, Bulletin 5, April 2012.
TUC resources: 28 April webpage, Infographic, guides to dealing with the press [pdf] and lobbying MPs [pdf] and 2012 Workers' Memorial Day and TUC Day of Action list of activities.
Other resources: Get kitted out with Hazards Campaign forget-me-knot ribbons, posters, lapel/stationery stickers [pdf order form], window stickers and t-shirts [pdf order form] - the perfect attire for a 28 April event. Further information from the Hazards Campaign, telephone 0161 636 7557.
ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day worldwide list of events and resources • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Government makes jobs less secure
Increasing the time before workers are protected from unfair dismissal from one year to two years could leave 2.7 million people at increased risk of losing their jobs, the TUC has warned. Job insecurity has been linked to higher rates of injuries at work and of work-related suicides, sickness and ill-health and has also been shown to drive down productivity.
TUC news release • BBC News Online • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Russia: Migrant workers die in blaze
At least 17 migrant workers have been killed by a fire that swept through a market warehouse in southern Moscow. The victims are believed to be market traders from former Soviet states who were staying in a metal storage warehouse at a construction materials market which “was not meant for people to live in,” Sergei Gorbunov of the fire department said.
Itar-Tass report • BBC News Online • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Unite acts on safety problems in fuel industry
A 'turn and burn' culture is forcing fuel drivers to deliver faster for less, raising fears about public safety, Unite’s Len McCluskey has warned. And he added this is why the union has been forced to consider industrial action.
Unite news release and You Tube ‘enough is enough’ clip • Guardian article and Len McCluskey comment piece • Left Foot Forward • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Global: Apple hit by China Foxconn factory report
An independent investigation has found “significant issues” including concerns about safety, excessive hours and low pay at Chinese plants making Apple iPhones and iPads. The independent report, however, has been criticised by campaigners for going easy on Apple and ducking issues like subcontractor Foxconn’s notoriously ‘militaristic’ management style.
FLA news release • SACOM news release • SumOfUs.org news release • San Jose Mercury • BBC News Online • New York Times • Al Jazeera • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Government criticised for petrol panic
Panic-buying of fuel and mixed messages over the safe storage of petrol have exposed the irrational decision to close the government agency that specialised in public information, the union PCS has said. And firefighters’ union FBU has warned a minister’s advice that householders should keep jerry cans of petrol in the garage is “wrong” and “massively dangerous.”
PCS news release • FBU news releases from 30 March and 28 March • Huffington Post • ITV News • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: The shocking reality of sickness absence
Nearly half of public sector workers in Scotland believe sickness absence policies encourage staff to turn up ill or injured at work, a UNISON Scotland survey has found. A quarter of workers (25 per cent) said they had worked in the previous month when too ill to do so, while almost two thirds (60 per cent) said they had worked when ill during the past year.
UNISON Scotland • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

The Netherlands: We won’t make it to retirement age
A survey by the Dutch health care union Abvakabo FNV found six out of ten workers in the health care sector are afraid they won’t be able to work until retirement age as are result of the increasing pressure of their jobs.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide • 7 April 2012

Britain: Offshore union wants wider exclusion zone
Offshore union Unite has called for the exclusion zone around the crippled Elgin platform in the North Sea to be extended. Unite regional officer Willie Wallace said “the oil companies must put people before profit and we are now calling for them to bring forward plans for an immediate evacuation of the impacted area.”
Unite Scotland news release • Daily Record • BBC News Online • HSE statement • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Usdaw fights for violent crime compensation
Retail union Usdaw is fighting government cost-cutting plans which would deny thousands of workers compensation after violent attacks at work. Usdaw, whose members are in the service sector frontline for violence at work, has initiated a petition opposing the changes to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICA).
Usdaw news release • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: CWU fury over broken danger dogs promise
Postal union CWU has reacted angrily after the government broke its promise “yet again” to strengthen the law on dangerous dogs. The government had said an announcement would be made before the Easter recess but parliament broke up on 27 March and nothing had been debated.
Morning Star • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Unions welcome improved asbestos rights
Unions have reiterated their ‘delight’ at last week’s Supreme Court ruling which will allow many more asbestos victims to receive compensation for related cancers. The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC), which includes the six main education unions, said the ‘landmark’ decision “means that thousands of families will be able to seek compensation for the loss of loved ones.
JUAC news release [pdf] and website • The Guardian • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Improved asbestos law takes effect
In an unrelated move, a new asbestos at work law took effect on 6 April. The changes to the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations extends the law’s protection to a wider group of workers, after European Commission lawmakers indicated the UK’s law was too restrictive to meet minimum Europe-wide requirements.
Unite alert on changes to the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations [pdf] • 7 April 2012

Asthma: Docs warned on high work asthma rates
Doctors are being advised to explore the potential job-related causes of asthma when diagnosing patients. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) says an estimated one in six cases of asthma in people of working age is either caused or aggravated by work-related factors.
RCP news release and report, Concise guidance: diagnosis, management and prevention of occupational asthma • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Heart disease risk for asbestos workers
Workers exposed to asbestos as part of their job are at a significantly greater risk of heart disease and stroke than the general population, with women more likely to be affected than men, according to new research. The study was conducted by researchers at the Health and Safety Executive’s research arm, HSL, and was published online in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Anne-Helen Harding and others. Cardiovascular disease mortality among British asbestos workers (1971–2005), Occupational and Environmental Medicine, published online 2 April 2012. doi:10.1136/oemed-2011-100313
Daily Mail • Scotsman • Nursing in Practice • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Dust and heart disease link not new
Hazards magazine warned last year that cardiovascular disease is a common but frequently overlooked consequence of exposure to dust at work. The magazine mentioned this effect specifically once again in a graphic on effects of dust.
Hazards magazine ‘Dust up’ campaign and How does dust hurt you? graphic • 7 April 2012

Britain: Dad’s asbestos-ridden clothes killed daughter
A mother-of-two died of cancer because she used to welcome her shipyard worker father home from work each night with a hug. Annette Bhatti, who was just 49, also helped her ill mother to scrub her father’s asbestos contaminated work uniform by hand more than 40 years ago.
Daily Mail • Daily Star • Daily Mirror • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Mental health chief quits welfare panel
The head of a mental health charity has left a government panel implementing changes to the welfare system, describing the system as “deeply flawed.” Chief executive of Mind Paul Farmer said he quit the government’s review panel for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) because ministers refused to listen to his criticism of the fitness-to-work test.
Mind blog • BBC News Online • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Action call over capital’s travel violence fears
Transport union RMT has called for urgent action on transport safety and staffing after a survey found more than a quarter of women do not feel safe using London public transport, even in the day. The End Violence Against Women coalition’s YouGov survey found 28 per cent of women and 15 per cent of men do not feel safe travelling on London transport at any time of the day and night.
RMT news release • End Violence Against Women website. BBC News Online • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Lift firm fined after Heathrow death
Lift manufacturer Schindler Ltd has been fined £300,000 for criminal safety failings after an employee was crushed to death while installing a passenger lift at Heathrow Airport. Lift engineer Kevin Dawson, 45, was helping with the construction of Terminal 5A at London Heathrow when the incident occurred on 27 October 2007.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Schindler Ltd safety webpages • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Cleaning firm fined over porter's death
A national cleaning company has been fined £175,000 after a hospital porter was killed by an industrial waste compactor in Bolton. ISS Mediclean Ltd employee Peter Bonomy's neck was broken when the lid on the large metal container slammed down on him at the Royal Bolton Hospital in Farnworth in 2006.
HSE news release • Manchester Evening News • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Britain: Health screening firm left workers at risk
A health screening company has been fined after using unqualified staff to assess the health of workers from dozens of firms across the UK. Audio Medical Services Ltd (AMS) carried out tests for 59 companies over a period of at least four years - but failed to provide employers with information to prevent workers' health deteriorating and did not refer employees to occupational health professionals when required.
HSE news release and vibration webpages • Risks 550 • 7 April 2012

Hazards news, 31 March 2012

Britain: Asbestos victory at the Supreme Court
A Supreme Court ruling which this week found against insurance companies that had been seeking to deny compensation to the victims of asbestos cancers has been welcomed by unions.
TUC news release • Unite news release • BBC News Online • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Relief at asbestos trigger case victory
Relatives and supporters of victims of asbestos cancers have expressed relief at a Supreme Court ruling which ends a six year block on many compensation payouts. The court rejected an argument from four insurers - Excess Insurance, MMI, Builders Accident and Independent Insurance Company - that the date when an asbestos cancer develops should be the date when the insurer’s liability is triggered.
Asbestos Forum news release [pdf] • Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • John Pickering Solicitors news release • Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Cases expose ongoing asbestos disease crisis
The ongoing risk posed by asbestos exposure has been illustrated by two recent mesothelioma cases, affecting a school caretaker and a wife exposed to the fibre on her husband’s work clothes.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Gloucester Citizen • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Global: Workers best at monitoring supply chains
High tech giant Apple must give workers a voice in their future and demand more information about the factories where its components are made, labour and consumer groups have said. In a joint statement issued on 22 March, unions and NGOs called on Apple to rely on workers themselves to monitor the labour conditions in the manufacture of its products, not a top-down auditing approach.
IMF news release and ‘Give Apple workers a voice in their future’ joint statement [pdf] • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Unions call for dock safety action
The UK government must undertake an ‘urgent rethink’ of its hands-off policy on safety enforcement in Britain’s deadly docks, UK and international union bodies have said. The unions were commenting on the ‘grave loophole’ after a safety report this month challenged the official classification of the ports industry in the UK as ‘low risk’, pointing to a death rate five or more times the national occupational average.
ITF news release and Hazards ‘Safety in the dock’ report • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Bad gloves cost railway worker his thumb
A Wakefield railway worker provided with unsuitable safety gloves ended up losing part of his thumb after it became infected by contact with human waste. ASLEF member Darren Skelton, 41, ended up in hospital hooked up to an IV drip after his thumb became seriously infected.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Europe: Stress in the workplace to rise
Job-related stress is a concern for the large majority of the workforce, a Europe-wide survey has found. The 2nd European Opinion Poll on Occupational Safety and Health, conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), found eight in ten (80 per cent) of the working population across Europe think the number of people suffering from job-related stress over the next five years will increase, with over half (52 per cent) expecting this to ‘increase a lot’.
EU-OSHA news release, full results of the pan-European poll and EU results, country summaries and methodology • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Unite says no more slip ups
The union Unite has called on employers to deliver workplaces free from avoidable hazards after a member suffered a serious knee injury in a slip at an industrial lubricant manufacturer. Russell Scragg, 59, slipped on a step at Fuchs Lubricants in Stoke on Trent where he had worked in a skilled role as a blender for 10 years.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Dodgy surface floored firefighter
A firefighter who broke his ankle ended up having to resign from the service as a result of his injuries. The 37-year-old FBU member from Porth, Mid-Glamorgan, gave up his 10-year career as a retained firefighter after he broke his right ankle when he tripped on uneven ground in Porth Fire Station during a weekly exercise wearing breathing apparatus in 2007.
Thompsons Solicitors • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Government silent on safety law cull targets
The government has confirmed a Budget commitment to cull or revise 84 per cent of the UK’s health and safety laws, but can’t or won’t say which laws are in its sights. A Treasury spokesperson confirmed “167 of the 199 health and safety regulations considered as part of the Red Tape Challenge” will either be withdrawn or improved but would not give a more detailed breakdown.
SHP Online • Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Warning on the UK’s dangerous role in Europe
A senior member of the European Parliament has warned that the UK government is bidding to undermine UK workplace safety law in Europe as well as at home. Glenis Willmott, a UK MEP and Labour’s leader in Europe, said “it is a critical time for health and safety.”
Glenis Willmott blog • UCATT news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: ‘Massive relief’ at safe gas platform evacuations
Offshore union RMT has expressed its “massive relief” at the safe evacuation of the Elgin gas platform. A gas leak on the Total E&P UK (TEP UK) Elgin PUQ platform, about 150 miles (240km) off the coast of Aberdeen, led to the withdrawal of all 238 workers.
Total webpage on the Elgin gas leak • RMT news release • The Guardian • BBC News Online • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Global: Call for action on safety for journalists
The UK government must do more to encourage the international community to take sanctions against regimes which perpetrate acts of violence against journalists, the union NUJ has said. The call came ahead of a Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) meeting that agreed to start a process “toward the creation of a free and safe environment for journalists and media workers in both conflict and non-conflict situations, with a view to strengthening peace, democracy and development worldwide”. 
UNESCO news release and Decision on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity [pdf] • NUJ news release • House of Commons debate on safety of journalists abroad, 21 March 2012 • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Dust disease widow’s information plea
The widow of a Durham man who died from a debilitating disease caused by asbestos dust just a week before their golden wedding is appealing for his former colleagues to come forward to help shed light on conditions where he worked. Thomas William Flower died in October last year from the lung scarring disease asbestosis, which was diagnosed after the 74-year-old’s death following a four year battle with illness.
Irwin Mitchell Solicitors news release • Northern Echo • Anyone who can help is asked to call Isobel Lovett at Irwin Mitchell on 0191 279 0104 • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Deadly print firm ignored warnings
Wyndeham Peterborough, one of the UK's leading printing groups, has been fined £112,500 at Peterborough Crown Court after maintenance engineer Ian Ebbs was crushed to death in a printing press. Earlier incidents that should have alerted the company to the danger had not been acted on, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) discovered.
HSE news release • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Shipbuilding firm sentenced over welder death
A Merseyside shipbuilding firm has been fined £120,000 over the death of a welder who became trapped while driving a forklift truck. Robert Dunroe suffered mortal injuries while using the truck to transport heavy welding equipment at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead on 18 August 2010, dying four days later. His employer, Cammell Laird Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders Ltd, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found he had not been trained to drive a forklift.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Leisure park worker trapped in trench collapse
A worker at a Devon holiday park suffered serious injuries when a trench he was working in collapsed on top of him. Grzegorz Waluszkowski, 40, was helping to lay a drainage pipe at the park on Lady's Mile Farm in Dawlish on 23 July 2010, when the wall of the two metre deep trench caved in.
HSE news release and excavations webpages • Construction Enquirer • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Australia: ‘Red tape ideologues’ must be challenged
The safety profession must challenge the ‘entrenched ideologies’ of conservatives baying for deregulation of workplace health and safety, an Australian expert has said. Kevin Jones, writing in his ‘Safety at work’ blog, says the country’s conservative political parties persist with the “ideological fantasy” that occupational health and safety laws impede growth by disrupting work and adding unnecessary operational costs.
Safety at work blog. TJ Larsson. Safety management systems – Culture, cognition or cash?, Safety Science Monitor, volume 14, Issue 2, 2010 • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Employers can’t demand Facebook details
The Information Commissioner's Office has warned employers in the UK that it would have “very serious concerns” if they were to ask for Facebook login and password details from existing or would-be employees, following reports of such demands in the US.
There are indications sick workers in the UK could already have their Facebook and other social networking pages scrutinised by employers and insurers.
Facebook news release • The Guardian • The Telegraph • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Britain: Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 resources
TUC has assembled a top class package of resources to help organise, publicise and effectively run 28 April events and campaigns. Available on the TUC website, you’ll find a series of briefings giving all the facts and figures you’ll ever need to win an argument for better regulation and enforcement, an infographic spelling this out at-a-glance, guides on dealing with the press and lobbying MPs, and a listing of events nationwide.
TUC resources: 28 April webpage, Infographic, guides to dealing with the press [pdf] and lobbying MPs [pdf] and 2012 Workers' Memorial Day and TUC Day of Action list of activities
Other resources: Get kitted out with Hazards Campaign forget-me-knot ribbons, posters, lapel/stationery stickers [pdf order form], bumper stickers and t-shirts [pdf order form] – the perfect attire for a 28 April event. Further information from the Hazards Campaign, telephone 0161 636 7557.
ITUC/Hazards Workers' Memorial Day worldwide list of events and resources • Risks 549 • 31 March 2012

Hazards news, 24 March 2012

Britain: Rich make a killing, others will be killed
The TUC has condemned this week’s Budget as a series of measures “for the rich by the rich” incorporating a “regurgitated mish-mash” of pro-business moves that tell employers safety is unimportant and can be ignored. It added the Budget focus on safety deregulation “shows very clearly exactly why the TUC is organising a Day of Action on 28 April to defend health and safety.”
Budget 2012 Statement • TUC news release • CBI news release • Personnel Today • BBC News Online • Defend health and safety: Day of Action, 28 April 2012, TUC bulletin number 4. TUC Workers’ Memorial Day webpages and infographic • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

USA: Republicans seek to silence whistleblowers
Republican lawmakers have indicated it is more important to let employers police themselves on workplace safety than it is to give workers protection when they blow the whistle on unsafe practices. In comments to Daily Labor Report last week, Republican Representative John Kline revealed Republicans are particularly opposed to the additional $4.9 million (£3.1m) for worker whistleblower protection and the $3.2 million (£2m) cut in the voluntary employer compliance program that was the hallmark of the Bush administration.
AFL-CIO Now blog • AFL-CIO Executive Council statement • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Sunday trading hours extension is ‘ridiculous’
Shopworkers are opposed to ‘ridiculous’ government plans to introduce emergency legislation suspending Sunday trading laws this summer, their union has said. In his 21 March Budget statement, chancellor George Osborne announced there would be a “relaxation” of Sunday trading hours restrictions on eight Sundays during the Olympics and Paralympics, starting 22 July.
Usdaw news release • BBC News Online • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Vietnam: Steel firm accused of fatal blast cover-up
A major steel firm in Vietnam has been accused by officials of failing to report an explosion that killed two workers and injured six others. An official from the Hanoi Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs said the site of the incident at the Vietnam-Korea Steel and Iron Corporation located had been disturbed and that two bodies had been buried in the two days before the tragedy was reported.
Thanh Nien News • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Strain on NHS takes its toll on staff
The government’s handling of the health service is leaving staff facing soaring stress levels, the union UNISON has said. The union was commenting on the publication this week of the official NHS Staff Survey findings for 2011.
UNISON news release • NHS Staff Survey news release and National NHS Staff Survey Coordination Centre and NHS Information Centre • BBC News Online • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Warning on ‘deplorable’ seafarer ransom ban
Seafarers will pay with their lives if governments outlaw the payment of ransoms to pirates, the union Nautilus International has warned. General secretary Mark Dickinson has written to David Cameron expressing concern about the prime minister’s plans for an international taskforce to discourage the payment of ransoms.
Nautilus International news release • The Guardian • London Conference on Somalia including David Cameron’s speech • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Why the media must protect its staff
Media organisations must ensure women journalists are safe in their work, unions have said. A motion from the journalists’ union NUJ was passed unanimously last week at the TUC women’s conference.
NUJ news release • TUC Women’s conference 2012 • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Engineering firm injured apprentice
An apprentice engineer who was trained to remove safety guards from machinery suffered a severe head injury as a result. The 22-year-old from Bournemouth, who has received a ‘substantial’ settlement in a Unite-backed compensation claim, was struck on the face when a solid nylon billet he was attempting to work on at a precision engineering firm in the Bournemouth area flew off the machine.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Network Rail guilty of ‘corporate blindness’
Unions have said the prosecution of Network Rail after two girls were killed on an Essex level crossing has exposed the extent of the criminal culpability of those running the company. The rail infrastructure giant was fined £1m plus costs of £60,015 last week in a case brought by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).
ORR news release • TSSA news release • ASLEF news release • BBC News Online • The Independent • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Insurers turn a blind eye to work’s real harm
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has called “for action to free businesses from the fear of the UK’s compensation culture and overzealous interpretations of health and safety rules that could hold back Britain’s economic recovery.” ABI, though, makes no mention of life-threatening and disabling occupational diseases, instead focusing on “‘slip and trip’ style liability claims.”
ABI news release • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Cameron ignores call for a blacklisting public inquiry
The prime minister has said the police should investigate police complicity in the blacklisting of trade union and safety activists. The response came in parliament this week after two Labour MPs had called separately for a public inquiry into revelations from the Information Commissioner’s Office that information held by covert blacklisting outfit The Consulting Association could only have been provided by the police or security services.
Blacklist blog • Hansard, 15 March 2012 and 21 March 2012 • Construction Enquirer • 24 March 2012

Britain: Scrapping unfair dismissal ‘will horrify employees’
Government plans to scrap protection from unfair dismissal are a charter for nasty bosses, the TUC has indicated. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said “while this proposal does nothing for growth, it does show the kind of economy those close to the prime minister want to create - one in which nasty bosses are given full license to undermine those trying to maintain decent standards.”
BIS news release and call for evidence • TUC news release • CIPD news release • BBC News Online • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Benefit tests are not fit for the job
Government figures showing over a third of incapacity benefit claimants are fit to work are ‘hardly surprising’, the TUC has said, charging that the government tests have been designed specifically to get people off the benefit. There was a 56 per cent rise during 2010/11 in the number of people appealing rulings that they are fit for work and the tribunals system has become overloaded.
DWP news release. TUC news release. The Guardian on concerns about the fit for work system and the rise in appeals • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: HSE charging scheme is delayed
Plans to introduce a pay-as-you-go-wrong scheme for workplace safety offenders have been put back by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). HSE now says its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), which was scheduled to start in April 2012, is now expected to be delayed until the autumn.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Surveyor died because of Costain’s failures
Leading construction company Costain Ltd has been fined £250,000 for safety failings after a surveyor was killed by a reversing lorry during work to widen the M25 near Dartford. Employee Richard Caddock, 38, was talking on a mobile phone and could not hear the approaching truck above the noise of nearby motorway traffic, when he was hit from behind on 8 April 2008.
HSE news release • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Worker crushed to death in front of his son
A firm specialising in the manufacture of wooden doors and windows has been fined £26,000 for criminal safety failings after a worker was crushed to death by a stack of boards. Andrzej Rokita, a 55-year-old Polish national, had been with MM Contracting Ltd for only 10 days when he attempted to help his son, also an employee, to remove a large board from the middle of a pile stacked upright against a wall in the workshop.
HSE news release • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Britain: Hazards 2012 conference, Stoke, 31 August-2 September
This year’s Hazards Campaign conference – the largest annual grassroots safety conference in the Northern Hemisphere – will take place from 31 August to 2 September 2012 at Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent.
Hazards 2012 conference, Keele University, Stoke-on-Trent, 31 August-2 September 2012: booking form [pdf] and sponsorship appeal [pdf] • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012   

Australia: Truck union wins fight for safe pay rates
The Australian government has passed a law aimed at improving road safety for truck drivers. The new rules follow a long-running “safe rates” campaign by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which lobbied for more regulation to protect drivers from pressure to work long hours, speed or take drugs just to keep going.
Ministerial statement on passage of the Bill • TWU news release and ‘Safe Rates’ campaign • TWU SA news release • Nine News • ABC News • Risks 548 • 24 March 2012

Hazards news,17 March 2012

Britain: TUC warning on work diseases ‘timebomb’
Occupational diseases kill at least 100 times the number killed in workplace ‘accidents’, the TUC has said. The union body warns government claims that Britain’s workplaces are among the safest in the world fail to take account of this chronic disease toll, adding there is a systematic failure to address the real problem as a result.
Defend health and safety: Day of Action, 28 April 2012, bulletin 4, TUC and TUC Workers’ Memorial Day webpages • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

USA: Union-won law saves thousands of lives
A US union-won law to protect health workers from needlesticks injuries and related bloodborne diseases has led to a dramatic reduction in injuries and related deaths. A paper in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes: “Our findings… support the concept that well-crafted legislation bolstered by effective enforcement can be a motivating factor in the transition to injury-control practices and technologies, resulting in a safer work environment and workforce.”
Elayne K Phillips, Mark R Conaway and Janine C Jagger. Percutaneous injuries before and after the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, New England Journal of Medicine, volume 366, number 7, February 2012 [pdf] • SEIU YouTube clip on the role the union played getting the law passed • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: The numbers behind Workers' Memorial Day
TUC has made an ‘infographic’ to explain why workplace safety is still a “huge” issue in the UK, and why we still need the focus of Workers' Memorial Day. Inviting you to ‘do the maths on health and safety’, it notes that even official figures indicate at least 20,000 people in the UK go to their graves each year as a result of hazards encountered at work.
TUC briefing and infographic • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Union no to offshore flying in extreme weather
The union representing offshore oil industry pilots has said its members could refuse to fly in extreme weather. BALPA said pilots had concerns over a new ‘Dacon Scoop’ safety device, a net system for retrieving casualties from the water.
BALPA news release • BBC News Online • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012 

Britain: Women still treated unfairly on site
Half of women working on building sites believe they are treated unfairly at work because of their gender, a survey by the construction union UCATT has found. However, safety was one area where conditions for women construction workers appeared to be improving, the survey found. More than 7 in 10 respondents (71 per cent) reported that sufficient attention is given to health safety and welfare facilities.
UCATT news release • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Turkey: Union condemns site safety after deadly fire
At least 11 workers died after fire swept through a tent at a building site in the Turkish city of Istanbul. The Turkish Union of Road, Construction and Building Workers (YOL-İŞ) blamed subcontracting and the anti-union climate in the Turkish construction industry as the main reasons behind the tragedy.
BWI news release • Washington Post • BBC News Online • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Women worried about work journey
One in seven women has safety concerns about the journey to and from work, a survey by the retail union Usdaw has found. 'What's happening on your journey to work?', the report of Usdaw’s survey, says the union found women members are also twice as likely as men to feel unsafe on their journeys to and from work.
Usdaw news release, campaign materials and full What's happening on your journey to work? report • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

China: Call for law to stop overwork deaths
A law to prevent a growing number of deaths related to overwork has been proposed at China’s National's People's Congress (NPC). Hu Xiaoyan, China's first migrant worker elected as a representative of the NPC, made the call during the law-making body’s annual session.
China Daily • Global Times’ April 2011 report on Pan Jie’s death • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: CWU welcomes Royal Mail dog attacks inquiry
The communications workers’ union CWU has welcomed an announcement by Royal Mail that it is to conduct an independent inquiry into attacks by dogs on postal workers. Led by high court judge Sir Gordon Langley, the inquiry is expected to report later this year and will examine why so many employees suffer dog attacks when delivering mail, the consequences of these attacks and the adequacy of existing laws and enforcement.
Royal Mail news release • CWU news release and Bite Back campaign, leaflet and poster • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Unions slam plan for a cut price rail system
Unions have criticised government plans to slash billions from public investment in the railways and have said they will campaign to defend the service. Commenting on plans announced by transport secretary Justine Greening, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “If the train operators get their way they will seize control of infrastructure and drag us back to the lethal days of Railtrack that led us to Hatfield and Potters Bar.”
DtT news release • TUC news release • RMT news release • TSSA news release • ASLEF news release • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Global: Unions can help banana workers
For you, the banana is the ultimate convenience food. It’s full of natural goodness, available year round and comes in its own easy-to-remove entirely natural wrapper. But it is not so good for the workers around the world that tend the banana plants on the plantations or that wash and process the crop in packhouses.
Banana Link Union-to-Union appeal and photofile • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Report finds hidden docks deaths
Docks union Unite has condemned a ‘ludicrous’ government strategy that labels docks a ‘low risk workplace’ and that will seek to to scrap dock safety regulations. The union was speaking out after a ‘Safety in the dock’ report in the new issue of Hazards magazine revealed that far from being low risk – and so not subject to preventive Health and Safety (HSE)  inspections - the dock industry has a fatality rate at least five times and possibly over 20 times the national average.
Safety in the dock, Hazards magazine, number 117, 2012. Morning Star • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Deadly docks anger of bereaved mum
A grieving mum whose young son was killed in a horrific dockwork incident has said she is “appalled” at the government’s ‘low risk’ designation for the industry and plans to remove docks-specific safety laws.
Labournet • Simon Jones Memorial Campaign and facebook news release • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Campaigners to remember dead dock worker
Agency worker Tim Elton, who died aged 28 at Immingham Dock on 27 January 2012 and who is one of the deaths listed in research by Hazards magazine that uncovered five dock work deaths since 23 October 2011, will be commemorated in 28 April Workers’ Memorial Day events in Immingham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes.
Grimsby Telegraph • Safety in the dock, Hazards magazine, number 117, 2012 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Anger over Battersea crane deaths verdict
The families of two men killed in a London crane collapse could seek a judicial review of the coroner’s court ruling after a narrative verdict was returned. Although the verdict was highly critical of the crane operator, Falcon Cranes, the families of Michael Alexa and Jonathan Cloake had hoped for an unlawful killing verdict.
Construction Enquirer • Wandsworth Guardian • Surrey Advertiser • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Food giant Nestle fined after machine death horror
A Halifax man was killed at a Nestle factory in the town because the company failed to implement basic safety measures, Bradford Crown Court has been told. Father of three Nazar Hussain died at food giant Nestle's Albion Mill plant in December 2008 after a colleague re-started a conveyor-type machine, known as a depalletiser, unaware that Mr Hussain was inside.
HSE news release • Yorkshire Post • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Countryside firm sentenced over death strimmer
A countryside management firm has been sentenced over the death of father-of-four Tony Robinson, 37, who was struck by a piece of metal that flew off a strimmer at high speed. Allen Shute, the investigating inspector at HSE, said: “The chain attachment has since been banned across Europe, and I would urge anyone who still has one to dispose of it immediately.”
HSE news release • North West Evening Mail • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Lords vote down ‘cruel’ legal aid move
Dying victims of occupa tional cancers should not be penalised as a consequence as a government’s drive to trim £350m of the legal aid bill by 2015, peers have said. An amendment to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill blocking government plans to force asbestos victims to use some of their damages to pay legal bills succeeded this week in the House of Lords.
House of Lords debate, 14 March 2012, Hansard. BBC News Online • Yorkshire Evening Post • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Australia: Workers bear the cost of hazardous work
It is workers, not employers, who overwhelmingly bear the costs of workplace injuries and diseases, an official Australian report has shown. The report by Safe Work Australia revealed threequarters of the costs of workplace injuries and diseases is borne by the injured workers themselves, with just 5 per cent borne by employers.
ACTU news release and Safe at work webpage • Department for Education, Employment and Work Relations news release • Safe Work Australia Report • Herald Sun • More from around the world on the real cost of workplace deaths, injuries and ill-health • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Britain: Fire service privatisation an ‘unmitigated disaster’
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has warned that the safety of Londoners is being jeopardised. The warning came after the publication of an official report exposing serious failures arising from the privatisation of some services in the capital.
FBU news release • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Global: Women journalists in danger zones
The challenges faced by women journalists working in conflict and danger zones around the world have been highlighted in a new book. The International News Safety Institute’s (INSI) 'No Woman's Land: On the Frontlines with Female Reporters' describes the risks, challenges and the emotional and physical impact of danger on newswomen around the globe.
INSI news release and video of the related panel debate • Risks 547 • 17 March 2012

Hazards news, 10 March 2012

Britain: Why won’t HSE treat cancer seriously?
The UK is ignoring an occupational cancer epidemic and needs to put far greater efforts into preventing work-related cancer deaths, a top workplace health researcher has said. Simon Pickva nce, who based at Sheffield University where he is investigating occupational bladder cancer risks, believes this cancer illustrates a flaw in HSE’s figures that systematically disappears real cancers from the statistics, by dismissing or ignoring risks by job, by industry or by substance.
This man knows all about cancer, Hazards, Number 117, 2012. Alliance for Cancer Prevention blog • Occupational cancer – a workplace guide, TUC, February 2012 • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Security services linked to blacklist of site reps
The police or security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades. It says the connection was made by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which believes records that could only have come from the police or MI5 were included in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims, most targeted for their trade union - and particularly safety - activities.
The Observer • Blacklist blog • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

USA: Diesel exhaust a serious cancer risk in miners
Miners exposed to high levels of diesel exhaust face a dramatically increased lung cancer risk, a long delayed official US study has found. “This landmark study has informed on the lung cancer risks for underground mine workers, but the findings suggest that the risks may extend to other workers exposed to diesel exhaust in the United States and abroad, and to people living in urban areas where diesel exhaust levels are elevated,” said Joseph F Fraumeni Jr, director of the National Cancer Institute’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.
NCI news release and Q&A on the diesel exhaust and miners study • iWatch News • The Pump Handle • Hazards magazine.
Silverman DT, Samaniac CM, Lubin JH and others. The diesel exhaust in miners study: a nested case-control study of lung cancer and diesel exhaust, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2 March 2012. doi:10.1093/jnci/djs034 [pdf].
Attfield MD, Schlieff PL, Lubin JH and others. The diesel exhaust in miners study: a cohort mortality study with emphasis on lung cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2 March 2012. doi:10.1093/jnci/djs035 [pdf].
Rushton L. The problem with diesel, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2 March 2012. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djs137 [pdf]
Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: RMT demands publication of secret ‘RMT File’
Rail union RMT has demanded full disclosure of a secret ‘RMT File’ held by The Consulting Association. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The Information Commissioner’s Office knows that an ‘RMT File’ exists in The Consulting Association records, as it is cross referenced in information from the construction industry files that we have in our possession.”
RMT news release • The Observer • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Worker involvement saves lives and money
There are substantial business benefits from worker involvement in health and safety, Prospect’s Sarah Page has told an audience of industry figures. Giving a series of examples, Page, the national health and safety officer with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors’ union, said the benefits of involving the workforce in health and safety would be visible in the balance book as well as the accident book.
Prospect news release and ‘union safety effect’ webpages • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Ministers told to act on shipping
Unions and MPs are putting urgent training and safety issues in the maritime industry back on the agenda “big time”. They are worried that the lack of provision for training, education and safety for shipping workers will result in a huge crisis in recruitment.
Nautilus UK news release • Morning Star • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

USA: Jail for death mine security chief
The former director of security at a Massey Energy mine in West Virginia has been sentenced to three years in prison for lying to federal agents and destroying documents sought by investigators looking into a deadly blast that killed 29 in 2010. Hughie Elbert Stover was also handed two years of probation and a $20,000 fine after he was convicted of two felonies, making a false statement and obstructing a government probe of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster.
US Attorney’s Office news release • The Charleston Gazette • AFL-CIO Now blog • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Court decision puts journalists in danger
A legal appeal against a court ruling forcing journalists, media organisations and broadcasters to submit all their footage to the police, has been submitted by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). The union says the appeal against the production order raises fundamental issues about the ability of the press to report matters of public interest impartially and without fear of intimidation.
NUJ news release • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: DIY tenants scheme ‘is dangerously flawed’
The government’s proposed do-it-yourself home repairs Tenant Cashback Scheme could result in tenants endangering themselves, construction union UCATT has warned. UCATT general secretary Steve Murphy said: “Councils and housing associations employ qualified repairs and maintenance workers who should be undertaking this safety critical work.”
UCATT news release • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Train victim's son 'disgusted' by knighthood
The son of a Glasgow woman killed in a train crash in Grayrigg, Cumbria, says he is “disgusted” Network Rail's former boss was given a knighthood on the same day the firm admitted its criminal safety failings had led to the tragedy.
ASLEF news release • BBC News Online • Scottish Daily Record • Scotsman • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: PM’s approach to health and safety ‘not helpful’
The man who was charged with reviewing workplace health and safety regulation for the government says he never described safety as a “burden” and instead believes his review showed that it “is not the case” that health and safety holds back business. Professor Ragnar Löfstedt said his mandate was “clearly a deregulatory one” but his overall conclusions were that there is no need for a major overhaul of the system and that bad health and safety practice is already a considerable burden on business and society.
IOSH news release • SHP Online and video of Professor Lofstedt's speech • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Gangmasters watchdog told to cut 'red tape'
Ministers are moving to ease regulation and oversight of gangmasters. Reacting to industry complaints about the “burden of administration and inspection” from the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), the government has said it will instruct the GLA to “minimise disruption” when conducting spot checks or planned visits to interview workers, and was considering extending a trial of “lighter-touch” regulation. The Guardian • 21 February House of Commons debate on the Gangmasters Licensing Authority • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Sock firm hit by asbestos fine
A sock company in Carmarthenshire has been fined £25,000 after being found guilty of failing to protect its employees from asbestos. Corgi Hosiery Ltd, which makes socks for Prince Charles, hired unqualified contractors to carry out work on the roof of its Ammanford factory.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Film company fined after cameraman hurt on set
A production company has been fined after a cameraman fell more than three metres from the set of a forthcoming major film. The 62-year-old, whose name has not been released, was working on the set of 47 Ronin at Shepperton Studios, Middlesex, when he fell through an opening in the floor.
HSE news release • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Britain: Demolition worker turned into fireball
A contractor has been convicted of a criminal safety breach after a demolition worker was engulfed in flames when he cut through a live 11,000 volt cable at an electricity substation in Worcester. Birmingham firm DSM Demolition Ltd and Halesowen-based Gould Singleton Architects Ltd (GSA), which pleaded guilty, were sentenced on 2 March 2012 following the incident on 14 July 2006.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 546 • 10 March 2012

Australia: Worker fatigue 'epidemic' identified
Australian workers are suffering from an “unrecognised epidemic” of tiredness, a new study suggests, with working parents particularly badly affected. Report authors, psychologists Natalie Skinner and Jill Dorian, recommend a cap the working week, including overtime, at 38 hours, to help avoid harm caused by sleep deprivation.
The Age • Risks 546 • 10 March 201

Hazards news, 3 March 2012

Global: Olympic merchandise agreement starts to deliver
A landmark workers’ rights agreement between the TUC and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has already started to deliver. Just one day after the agreement was signed, LOCOG published a list of their licensees and suppliers. This included details of the locations worldwide where production is taking place.
TUC Stronger Unions blog • ITUC news release • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Israel: Foreign site workers at greater risk of deaths
Half the 315 construction workers killed on Israeli construction sites over the past decade were West Bank Palestinians or foreign nationals, an official study for an Israeli parliament committee has concluded. The Knesset Research and Information Centre report found although half of all site victims over the past decade were West Bank Palestinians or foreign nationals, these groups represent only 15 per cent to 30 per cent of construction workers.
Haaretz • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Tube boobs lead to violence against staff
Blatantly misleading service announcements from London Underground (LUL) are leading directly to assaults and threats against staff, the union RMT has said. The union said the “catalogue of abuse” of the announcements system has been raised by RMT reps at a senior level meeting with LUL managers.
RMT news release • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Driverless trains plan dismissed as ‘tosh’
A pledge by Boris Johnson to introduce driverless trains on the London Underground network has been rubbished by unions, with RMT describing the plan as “lethal and unworkable.” Kicking off his bid for re-election as London mayor, Boris Johnson vowed to introduce driverless trains within two years.
ASLEF news release • London Evening Standard • The Telegraph • The Guardian • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Guatemala: More murders of banana union members
The murder of union members in Guatemala’s banana industry is continuing. The US Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) reports the most recent casualty, Miguel Angel González Ramírez, a member of the Izabal banana workers’ union, was shot on 5 February while he was holding his young son.
USLEAP news release and action call – you can send a protest letter online • AFL-CIO Now blog • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Tube driver’s vigilance saved child’s life
An incident on London Underground’s Jubilee line on the evening of Sunday 26 February – where only a driver’s vigilance saved a child - has underlined how the Mayor of London’s “obsession” with driverless trains is “irresponsible, callous and opportunist,” according to ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan.
ASLEF news release • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Grayrigg ‘more like history than justice’
Train drivers’ union ASLEF has criticised the five year gap between the Grayrigg disaster and Network Rail facing a court for related criminal safety offences.
ASLEF news release • The Independent • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Firefighter injured by faulty fire station doors
A retained firefighter needed surgery on his ankle after he was injured trying to close antiquated heavy doors at his fire station. The FBU member was attempting to close the huge 12ft high by 16ft wide front doors to the station when he suffered the injury in 2008.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012 

Britain: Surge in older workers doing unpaid overtime
The proportion of employees in their late 50s and early 60s working unpaid overtime has increased sharply in the last decade - despite a fall in unpaid hours for the rest of the workforce. A new TUC analysis of official figures shows across the UK around one in five workers (5.3 million people) put in an average of 7.2 hours of unpaid overtime per week last year, worth around £5,300 a year per person - and a record £29.2 billion to the economy.
TUC news release • The Guardian • Work Your Proper Hours Day • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Deregulation savings are a government 'fantasy'
Government claims that slashing red tape will save businesses millions have been challenged by trade unions and health and safety campaigners. Business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk claimed the "one-in, one-out" regulations rule and the government's Red Tape Challenge will save businesses more than £4 million in the first half of this year.
BIS news release and one-in-one-out policy • Morning Star • HSE Red Tape Challenge webpages • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Work victims attack ‘abhorrent’ legal fees plan
People with deadly work-related diseases are demanding justice secretary Ken Clarke ditches his “abhorrent” reforms that would force them to pay two new fees. Shadow justice minister Andy Slaughter said: “This is all part of a campaign to protect insurance companies and badly behaving industrial giants at the expense of people who worked hard all their lives and did nothing wrong.”
Daily Mirror • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Washing work clothes killed woman
A woman died of asbestos cancer aged 56 as a result of washing her husband's asbestos-covered work clothes for a decade. Jill Bolstridge would shake off the dirt from overalls worn by her husband James – who worked at Derby engineering firm S Robinson and Sons – before putting them in the washing machine.
Derby Telegraph • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Trailer firm fined £100,000 over driver's death
A worker died when a six-metre steel machine landed on top of him after it was dislodged from overhead brackets at a factory in East Yorkshire. Ronald Wood, 59, was struck on the head by the steel vacuum lifter, which weighed two-thirds of a tonne, when it was knocked from its mountings by a trailer being towed out of the Montracon factory.
HSE news release • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Lathe crushes young worker's leg
A Fife engineering company has been fined £10,000 after a lathe weighing more than a tonne toppled onto a worker’s leg. AG Brown Ltd employee Craig Stewart, 21, was working with a colleague to move a 1.2 tonne lathe from a workshop in Glenrothes to one of the metal fabrication company’s other workshops in the town.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Engineering worker suffered high voltage burns
An employee of an Oxfordshire-based engineering company sustained life-threatening burns after striking a high voltage electric cable during construction work on the new Crossrail railway. Fugro Engineering Services Ltd employee Samuel Langley was using a hydraulic breaker to create an inspection pit for a borehole when he struck a high voltage electric cable.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • London Evening Standard • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Britain: Gust blows worker off shipping container
A food manufacturing firm has been fined after a worker was blown off the top of a shipping container while moving corrugated metal sheets. Barry Walton, 64, an employee of Vion Foods UK Ltd, fell more than two-and-a-half metres to the ground, breaking his ribs and damaging muscles in his leg and shoulder.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Stress Network Annual Conference, 23-25 November 2012
The National Work Stress Network’s 2012 conference will be held in Rednal, near Birmingham on the weekend of 23-25 November. Marking the bicentenary this year of the birth of Charles Dickens, the event has a theme of ‘Hard Times, Great Expectations and Victorian values – combatting workplace stress in hostile times.”
National Work Stress Network conference, 23-25 November 2012, Hillscourt Conference Centre, Rednal, Nr Birmingham B45 8RS. Flyer and booking form [pdf] • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Egypt: Refinery blames former minister for deadly blast
An Egyptian petroleum company’s top legal adviser has blamed the country’s former finance minister for a deadly refinery blast. Araby Abdel Hamid, head of the legal department at the Suez Company for Petroleum Manufacturing, has said he holds Youssef Boutros-Ghali responsible for the 22 February explosion in which five workers were killed, because the minister refused to allow investment in new equipment.
Egypt Independent and related story • Egypt.com • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Global: Apple supplier challenged on ‘fair labour’ claims
Claims that a major supplier to hi-tech giant Apple is having its labour practices subject to effective external scrutiny have been dismissed by labour rights organisation as “a PR stunt.” In an open letter to Apple shareholders, the International Metalworkers Federation (IMF), GoodElectronics and makeITfair are critical of the investigations by the Fair Labour Association (FLA) at Apple supplier Foxconn.
IMF news release • Good Electronics • FLA news release and earlier release on Apple joining FLA • Risks 545 • 3 March 2012

Hazards news, 18 February 2012

Britain: Compensation ‘under threat’ from government
Workers are facing an ‘onslaught’ by the government on their ability to claim compensation, the TUC has warned. The union body says compensation is facing a triple whammy, with for workplace injury and ill-health victims, victims of criminal violence and those unfairly dismissed all set to lose out.
Compensation under threat • Defend health and safety Day of Action, 28 April 2012, Bulletin Number 3, TUC, February 2012. TUC Workers’ Memorial Day webpages • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

USA: Joint call for stricter beryllium standard
A beryllium producer and trade union have made a joint appeal for a stringent legally-binding exposure limit for the highly dangerous metal. The call from the United Steelworkers (USW) and Materion Brush came as they announced they had reached agreement on a model beryllium standard and had sent it to the official Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as a joint recommendation. 
USW news release • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: RMT demands action on Tebay deaths anniversary
Rail union RMT has marked the eighth anniversary of the disaster near Tebay in Cumbria, where four rail workers were killed by a runaway wagon, with a renewed call for action to stop a repeat of the safety failure. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT members up and down the country are rightly angry and disgusted that a secondary protection system, which has been the subject of countless meetings, still hasn’t been introduced eight years on.”
RMT news release • BBC News Online • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: NUJ condemns ‘bullying newsroom culture’
Journalists are being bullied by newspaper management and put under huge pressure to deliver the story at all costs, the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics has heard. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the media union NUJ, gave evidence compiled from personal interviews with journalists that reveals what NUJ describes as a shocking catalogue of bullying and abuse in the newspaper industry.
NUJ news release • Leveson Inquiry and pages including NUJ evidence • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Italy: Big jail terms for asbestos killings
Two former executives of a Swiss building products conglomerate have been convicted in Italy of causing the asbestos-related deaths of more than 3,000 people. The defendants, the former owner of the Eternit conglomerate Stephan Schmidheiny and Belgian baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, a major shareholder in the firm, were each sentenced in Turin to 16 years in prison on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
International Ban Asbestos Secretariat blog • iWatch News • CNN • Euronews • BBC News Online • Swissinfo • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: North Sea union probe uncovers ‘exploitation’
A union investigation of working conditions in the North Sea oil and gas sector has found evidence of the ‘exploitation and humiliation’ of Romanian workers in the port of Hartlepool. The Offshore Task Force Group convened by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) says it plans to ask the UK government’s Low Pay Unit and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate the alleged abuses, which include workers ‘so frightened’ they are working for food only.
ITF news release • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Latest tragedy exposes dangerous dogs problem
Dog attack deaths will continue unless there is a comprehensive overhaul of dangerous dogs laws, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said. The union was commenting on the death of an 83-year-old man following an attack by a neighbour’s dog.
CWU news release and Bite Back campaign • Daily Mail • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Union card pays off as bakery worker uses his loaf
A bakery worker who was approached directly by an insurance company after suffering disabling injuries at work could have lost almost £150,000 had he not turned to his union for advice. The 53-year-old from Birmingham, whose name has not been released, was initially offered just £69,000 for his injuries by his employer’s insurer, but received a £211,000 settlement – more than three times the original offer – after calling in the union.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Self-employed are not alone in a union
A self-employed worker who fell from a faulty scaffolding platform, breaking his hip and leg, has received compensation after help from his trade union. GMB member Michael Ramsey, 66, wasn’t trained to work at height.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Knee injury worsened by botched surgery
A Unite member who damaged his knee at work was then left even more seriously injured when private surgery funded by his employers went wrong. The 58-year-old maintenance fitter from Cheshire, whose name has not been released but who as received as substantial payout, has been left with a limp and unable to undertake heavy work after the injury suffered at Albion Inorganic Chemicals Ltd in Sandbach and the subsequent operation.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Injury victims left out as PM does insurers’ bidding
Victims of negligent employers have been left in the cold by the prime minister, who has held a Downing Street ‘summit’ with insurance industry top brass and employers’ organisations to discuss cutting the compensation bill. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson asked why no representatives of the victims of poor workplace conditions had been invited to the summit, adding: “Clearly they seem to have been written out of this process which is all about helping increase the profits of the insurance industry and stop people with legitimate claims from getting the compensation they should be entitled to.”
Downing Street statement on insurance summit • The Telegraph • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Downing Street freezes out grieving families
The prime minister continues to make damaging policy about health and safety at work based on a business wishlist and not the ‘massive costs and burdens on families of people killed by negligence’, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) has said. FACK’s Hilda Palmer said: “Cameron failed to reply to a letter we sent him expressing concern at his new year's resolution to 'kill off health and safety culture‚' yet holds a summit with the insurance companies and only hears the side of the story he wants to.”
FACK news release and We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Morning Star • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Asbestos killed school worker
A school cleaner and caretaker died as a result of exposure to asbestos throughout her career, an inquest has heard. Brenda Ann Butcher, 65, was diagnosed with the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma on 7 March last year and died on 26 April 2011.
South Wales Argus • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Director convicted after gas explosion
The managing director of a St Helens gas supply firm has been convicted of a criminal safety breach after he and an employee suffered multiple burns in an explosion where the fact no-one died “was simply down to luck”. Liverpool Crown Court heard that John Webster, 55, and another worker, who has asked not to be named, had been attempting to remove the valve on an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) cylinder at North West Gases Ltd on 10 April 2008.
HSE news release and gas safety webpages • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Britain: Site firm fined after worker badly injured
A construction company working in one of the London’s most expensive postcodes has been fined £30,000 after a Romanian worker suffered life-changing injuries when he fell seven metres from an unguarded roof. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted R&G Construction Ltd as a result of the incident on 7 March 2011.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Central America: Work link in killer kidney disease outbreak
An outbreak of kidney disease that has killed thousands of workers in Central America has been linked by experts to workplace hazards. Chronic dehydration and arduous work appears to a possible trigger for the chronic kidney disease, which is normally caused by diabetes and high blood pressure, maladies absent in most of the patients in Central America.
Seattle PI • Daily Mail • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Global: Monsanto guilty of poisoning French farmer
A French court has found the US biotech giant Monsanto responsible for the poisoning of a farmer who inhaled a powerful weedkiller. Monsanto says it will appeal against this week’s verdict by a court in Lyon. Grain farmer Paul Francois, 47, suffered from dizziness, memory loss, stammering, headaches, muscular aches and other problems after examining a sprayer in 2004 which contained Lasso, a product which remained on the market in France until 2007, despite earlier bans in Britain, Belgium and Canada. France 24 • RFI • The Guardian • BBC News Online • Daily Mirror • Risks 543 • 18 February 2012

Hazards news, 11 February 2012

Britain: Work cancer kills two an hour round the clock
Cancers caused by the jobs we do kill one person in the UK every 30 minutes around the clock, a TUC report has revealed. ‘Occupational cancer – a workplace guide’ says the prevention of workplace cancer has a much lower profile in the workplace than preventing injuries, “despite the fact that only 220 to 250 workers die each year as a result of an immediate injury as opposed to the 15,000 to 18,000 that die from cancer.” Occupational cancer – a workplace guide, TUC, February 2012 [pdf].
Occupational cancer – the figures: briefing for activists, February 2012 • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

USA: Industry stalls diesel fumes cancer action
Publication of a landmark US government study probing whether diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in miners — already 20 years in the making — has been delayed by industry and congressional insistence on seeing study data and documents before the public does.
Washington Post • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Prison workers face smoking dangers
While other workers benefit from lower cancer and heart disease risks resulting from the workplace smoking ban, workers in prisons do not, their union has said. POA has presented evidence to the Ministry of Justice showing prison staff are “exposed to considerable quantities of secondhand smoke during their work time.”
POA news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Bill targets deadly ‘phoenix firms’
Construction union UCATT has welcomed a parliamentary Bill designed to stop negligent bosses dodging punishment when their workers are killed or maimed. Liverpool MP and UCATT member Luciana Berger presented her 10 minute rule Bill demanding new powers to stop guilty companies avoiding punishment by going into administration.
UCATT news release • Morning Star and related article on Noel Corbin’s death • Liverpool Echo • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Network Rail bonus decision ‘too late’
Rail union TSSA has said a decision by Network Rail bosses to donate their six figure annual bonuses to improving safety at level crossings is welcome but comes too late for some victims of the company’s negligence.
TSSA news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Europe: Unions campaign against exploitation at sea
Seafarers from across Europe descended on Aberdeen to pay their respects to fallen colleagues and to demand an end to the exploitation of crews servicing oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Maritime union members from Britain, Norway and Denmark joined a sombre ceremony at the city's seafarers memorial before touring the harbour to talk to workers.
ITF news release • Nautilus news release • Morning Star • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Manslaughter probe over Chevron refinery deaths
Police investigating the devastating Pembroke Refinery explosion that killed four people last year are considering bringing manslaughter charges and have interviewed two refinery employees under caution. The move follows a painstaking investigation by Dyfed Powys Police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) into the 2 June 2011 blast that ripped through a storage tank at the then Chevron refinery, now operated by Valero Energy Limited.
Dyfed Powys Police news release • Western Telegraph • BBC News Online • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

USA: Social network pics used against sick workers
When your job harms you it may not be good enough just to be sick; you may have to demonstrate you are perpetually miserable as well. US workers are discovering that any suggestion of enjoyment posted on social networking sites, could see the injured party’s workers’ compensation payouts stopped.
MSNBC’s The Bottom Line • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Blacklisting firm held file on oil industry academic
A secret blacklisting file opened on an academic who researched health and safety following the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster claims the offshore oil industry threatened to cut funding to his university if he “continued to cause problems”. Professor Charles Woolfson had published extensively on safety regimes in the North Sea while he was industrial relations professor at the University of Glasgow and wrote a well-regarded book, Paying The Piper.
Taking out the Trash blog • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: ‘Disgusted’ fiancée expected jail for site death
A grieving woman has said she is ‘disgusted’ no-one is facing a jail term after her partner was killed on a London construction site. Craig Page died in what the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) described as an ‘entirely avoidable’ incident where a crane carrying three times its maximum load toppled over, smashing its boom into the father-of-one.
HSE news release • Ham and High • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Alert electrician spots asbestos blunder
Workers and residents were put at risk of exposure to asbestos fibres until an alert electrician raised the alarm. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told Chippenham Magistrates' Court that DB Construction (West Wilts) Ltd carried out unsafe work while refurbishing a house in Bradford-on-Avon between 29 November and 10 December 2010.
HSE news release and asbestos webpages • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Tour bus crushed a mechanic
A major London tour bus operator has been fined after a mechanic suffered serious injuries while working underneath one of its vehicles. Westminster Magistrates' Court heard the 58-year-old employee of The Original London Sightseeing Tour Limited was working underneath the vehicle when the axle dropped onto the mechanic breaking his pelvis and several ribs.
HSE news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

USA: Truck drivers shut port over safety
Trucker drivers working for the major haulage contractors at the port of Seattle turned off the engines, got out of their cabs, and stopped hauling to draw attention to their serious safety concerns. As a result of this action by the Clean and Safe Ports campaign, commerce at the major trading hub slowed to a trickle.
Clean and Safe Ports news release and website • Change to Win reports • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Worker died in unguarded machine
Railcare Limited has been fined £133,000 for criminal health and safety failings after an employee died from head injuries while carrying out maintenance work. John Smith, 53, died as a result of the injuries sustained whilst working at an axle lathe that had an unguarded chuck.
COPFS news release • BBC News Online • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Arm skinned and broken at fencing firm
An international fencing manufacturer has been fined after a worker suffered severe injuries to his left arm at a production plant in Sheffield. Sheffield Magistrates' Court heard how on 7 August 2009 the Betafence Ltd employee suffered a dislocated elbow, compound fractures to his lower arm, and had parts of his skin ripped off as he tried to re-thread some wire through a machine block.
HSE news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Two injured in eight metre fall
Construction contractor Chalcroft Ltd has been prosecuted after two workers fell eight metres from a temporary structure at a factory building job in Coleford. Cheltenham Magistrates Court heard that Spencer Gosney and Matthew Brewer had been subcontracted to build a concrete core as part of a new GlaxoSmithKline factory when the formwork on which they were standing collapsed.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Construction Enquirer • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Farmworker suffers smashed face in fall
A farmworker suffered severe facial injuries after falling 16ft through a shed roof in Cornwall. Bodmin Magistrates' Court heard self-employed worker James Best, 24, was asked to help remove fibre cement roof sheets from a shed at Park Farm, Washaway, near Bodmin when he fell 16ft on to the concrete floor below.
HSE news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Stonemason gets belated payout for diseased lung
A stonemason who developed a life-limiting occupational lung disease after he was exposed to silica dust at work has received compensation more than 13 years after he was diagnosed, and despite one set of solicitors turning his case down.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Britain: Government confirms schools asbestos inaction
The government has confirmed it is not intending to the take the ‘urgent’ action needed to control asbestos risks in schools. The call for action came this month in a report from parliament’s all party group on occupational health and safety.
Adjournment debate, 7 February 2012: Columns 277 – 284, Hansard • Morning Star • GMB news release • IBAS blog • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Canada: Horrific crash kills 10 farm workers
Ten migrant farm workers in Ontario, Canada, have been killed when the van transporting them collided with a flatbed truck. The tragedy, which occurred early evening on 6 February, has led to renewed calls from agricultural workers’ organisations for improved safety in the industry. 
UFCW Canada news release • Globe and Mail • Risks 542 • 11 February 2012

Hazards news, 4 February 2012

Britain: Justice under threat from all sides
Workers are facing a government “onslaught” on their ability to get justice after being abused at work, the TUC has warned. TUC’s head of safety Hugh Robertson notes an attack on access to employment tribunals forms part of an injustice triple whammy, with personal injury and criminal injury compensation also in the government’s sights. Stronger Unions blog • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Union helps to secure crossing deaths justice
A rail union has been instrumental in securing the criminal prosecution of Network Rail on health and safety charges. Network Rail has admitted safety failings at a level crossing where two teenage girls were killed more than six years ago, saying it will plead guilty to three breaches of health and safety laws and promising to press on with checks on thousands of other crossings.
ORR news release • The Guardian • BBC News Online • Daily Mail • The Telegraph • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Global: Fishing nations fail to tackle deadly risks
The fishing industry worldwide needs to take urgent action if it is to jettison its reputation as one of the most dangerous and unregulated occupations, a global union federation has said. The London-based International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) wants governments to sign up to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention underpinning basic safety and employment rights for fishers.
ITF news release and new guide • ITF/IUF ‘From Catcher to Counter’ campaign • Hazards magazine • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Global: Apple bruised by worker abuse revelations
Apple’s public image has been dented by revelations about working conditions in the factories of some of its network of Chinese suppliers. A steady stream of critical articles, highlighting dust explosions, labour abuses, long hours and mass poisonings of workers at Chinese subcontractors have been bad enough PR, culminating in a front page feature in the New York Times, headlined: ‘In China, human costs are built into an iPad.’
New York Times and related article • Los Angeles Times • The Observer • The Pump Handle • International Campaign for Responsible Technology • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Health and safety goes south-west
The South West TUC has called on the government to abandon its dangerous workplace safety plans. There has been a downward trend in workplace injuries in the region but, with eight people in the region killed in the course of their work last year, the TUC’s regional centre says David Cameron is wrong to halve the number of health and safety regulations.
TUC news release • South West TUC health and safety conference, 8 February, Bristol and the new manual for union reps • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

USA: Action on deadly silica hits a brick wall
Progress on a new safer official US workplace exposure limit for deadly silica dust has been frustrated by the business lobby for over a decade. But a bid by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to finally introduce stricter controls on silica has hit a second brick wall – a review process run by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that has stalled the ready-to-go standard since 14 February last year.
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health silica campaign and letter to President Obama [pdf] • Union of Concerned Scientists news release • NPR Morning Edition • Huffington Post • AFL-CIO Now blog • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Faulty system left car worker in a jam
A toolsetter for a car parts manufacturer suffered a painful back injury after a machine with a known problem jammed. The 57-year-old Unite member from Walsall suffered a slipped disc as he was fitting a four foot long beam to reinforce a car bumper for Wagon Industries in May 2008.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Knee injury stops train driver
A train driver was off work for nine months after being injured in a fall on an icy platform. The 30-year-old ASLEF member from Oxfordshire, who fell on snow and ice on the platform at Frome station in January 2009, has received a “significant” out of court payout.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

MPs call for urgent action on asbestos in schools
MPs have warned urgent action is needed to address the asbestos “timebomb in our schools”. A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health, sent to MPs and peers on 1 February, says more than 75 per cent of Britain’s state schools contain asbestos.
News release from Jim Sheridan MP and full report, Asbestos in schools: The need for action, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health, 1 February 2012 [pdf] • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Asbestos like ‘capital punishment’ for workers
A coroner has said asbestos at work was like “capital punishment” for hard workers. Dr Janet Napier, deputy coroner for Cheshire, was commenting at the inquest into the death of a former Crewe Works employee, William Martin, who worked at the railway as a fitter and turner between 1956 and 1988.
Crewe Guardian • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Excessive working time causes depression
A new study has concluded that working long hours - regardless of job stress or satisfaction - increases the risk of depression. Researchers at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and University College London followed nearly 2,000 middle-aged British civil servants for almost six years.
TUC Touchstone blog. Marianna Virtanen and others. Overtime work as a predictor of major depressive episode: A 5-year follow-up of the Whitehall II Study, PLoS ONE, volume 7, number 1, published online 25 January 2012. CBS News • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Firm guilty after worker’s head is crushed
Construction worker Steven Allen, 23, died from massive crush injuries when his head became trapped in the jaws of a grab machine being wrongly used to move a pallet of cement bags. JN Bentley was fined £106,250 and ordered to pay costs of £90,000.
HSE news release • Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK) news release • Telegraph and Argus • Construction Enquirer • Morning Star • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Young driver crushed by one tonne pallet
Hampshire lift manufacturer Wessex Lift Co Ltd has been fined after a driver was killed while making a delivery to the firm. Father-of-one Adam Millichip, 27, was delivering sheet metal to the firm on 16 November 2007 when he was hit by a one tonne pallet, being moved by a forklift, which crushed him against his lorry.
HSE news release and workplace transport webpages • BBC News Online • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Radiation found on Dounreay workers' shoes
Traces of radioactive contamination have been detected on shoes worn by workers preparing to leave a condemned building at the Dounreay nuclear site. It was understood 14 workers were involved. 
DSRL news release • BBC News Online • Scotsman • Press and Journal • Construction Enquirer • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Scaffolder survives seven metre fall
A construction firm has been prosecuted after a scaffolder suffered multiple injuries when he fell seven metres through a roof. Fred Lewis Scaffold Company Ltd pleaded guilty to a criminal safety breach and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 costs.
HSE news release and falls webpages • Staffordshire Sentinel • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Britain: Three firms fined after worker falls from roof
Three Dundee companies have been fined a total of £336,000 after a 23 year old Christopher Carson fell six and a half metres through a roof light onto a concrete floor. Robert AS Crockett and Partners Ltd was fined £66,000; Electroguard Security Systems and Dundee Cold Stores were each fined £135,000.
HSE news release • Daily Record • The Courier • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Global: Unions gets help to sunk cruiseship crew
Unions have brokered an agreement to help crew members who survived the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruiseship. The team led by Francesco Di Fiore of the global transport unions’ federation ITF liaised with affiliated unions in crew members’ home countries and acting as a link with the ship’s operator.
ITF news release • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Turkey: Denim sandblasting takes another life
The deadly legacy of Turkey’s denim sandblasting trade has accounted for another life. Press reports from the country say 28-year-old İdris Oral died after suffering from silicosis caused by his work at a denim sandblasting workshop.
Bianet • Clean Clothes Campaign appeal • Risks 541 • 4 February 2012

Hazards news, 28 January 2012

Britain: Obeying safety rules is a responsibility, not a burden
Health and safety regulation is not the burden on business the prime minister suggests, but something any responsible business should embrace, the TUC has asserted. “Regulation should not be seen as a burden on business, a TUC briefing says, adding: “It is a responsibility, just as paying taxes is a responsibility, and no business should be able to operate unless it can do so safety.”
Defending regulation, TUC Day of Action to defend health and safety bulletin No.1.  TUC Workers’ Memorial Day webpages • ITUC/Hazards International Workers’ Memorial Day webpages • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Enforcement works, non-enforcement kills
A drastic cut in the UK’s already under par workplace safety enforcement activity will lead to more death and injuries, the TUC has warned. The union body notes: “Good employers have always supported both regulation and enforcement because it means that their competitors cannot take short-cuts with people's safety and undercut them,” concluding: “It is only unscrupulous or incompetent employers who fear consistent and fair regulation of health and safety.”
The need for enforcement, TUC Day of Action to defend health and safety bulletin No.2. We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

USA: Union demands action on refinery safety
Workers at US oil refineries took their safety campaign to the streets on 21 January. A United Steelworkers (USW) union National Day of Action for Safe Refineries and Good Jobs saw members in refinery communities visit petrol stations and distribute leaflets to drivers highlighting the importance of refinery safety.
USW news release and Safe refineries and good jobs campaign • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Girl’s mauling shows need for new dogs law
The arrest of the owner of a dangerous dog that attacked a six-year-old girl has been welcomed by the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU). Commenting after the serious mauling, CWU, which says postal workers alone are the victims of 6,000 dog attacks each year, repeated its call on the government to change “outdated” dogs laws.”
CWU news release and Bite back campaign • Sky News • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Global: Union urges investigation before cruiseship blame
Serious safety failings could be obscured in the rush to blame the captain and crew for the Costa Concordia cruiseship sinking, the union Nautilus International has warned. Nautilus general secretary Mark Dickinson said “there is a danger that just blaming individuals will obscure the serious and profound safety lessons that may need to be learned, as well as the matter of justice and a right to a fair trial.”
Nautilus news release • Corriere della Sera • The Guardian • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Union nips in to get finger payout
A Unite member who suffered permanent damage to his fingers at work and waited almost three years before he claimed compensation has received a payout of more than £8,000. The 65-year-old from Isleworth in Middlesex, whose name has not been released, suffered from tendon damage to his little and ring fingers after using an unsafe drill whilst working for Field Systems Design.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Honda ignored grate warning
Car manufacturer Honda ignored a worker’s warning about a hazardous grate, which subsequently caused the concerned employee to suffer serious knee injuries that “destroyed” his life. Unite member Patrick Scanlon, 47, had warned his bosses at the Honda factory in Swindon that a raised grate on the factory floor was an accident waiting to happen but nothing was done to fix it.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Government is ‘peddling myths’ and misusing Löfstedt
The expert who carried a government commissioned review of workplace safety regulation has raised concerns about his report being ‘misused’ for political purposes. Professor Ragnar Löfstedt told a forum in London on 17 January he was not in favour of “radical” reform, contradicting David Cameron's attack earlier this month on the 'monster' of health and safety.
 Prospect news release • Law Society Gazette. House of Commons debate on health and safety regulation, 23 January 2012, Hansard report. Proposals to revoke seven Statutory Instruments, Consultative document CD238, responses by 12 March 2012 • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

USA: Study reveals massive costs of bad work
The cost of workplace injuries and illnesses is soaring in the US, and now runs to US$250 billion (£160bn) a year, a study has found. The total, which outstrips the direct and indirect costs of all cancers, coronary heart disease and diabetes, demonstrates the need for a greater emphasis on prevention, according to author J Paul Leigh.
JP Leigh. Economic burden of occupational injury and illness in the United States, Milbank Quarterly, volume 89, number 4, pages 728-772, December 2011 [pdf].
The Pump Handle • EHS Today • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: HSE ‘challenge panel’ to target safety myths
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is to invite the public to tell it about claims and decisions that bring health and safety into disrepute, so that a new dedicated challenge panel can quickly disprove them. The new panel comes hot on the heels of the ‘Independent Regulatory Challenge Panel’, imposed on HSE by the government as a means for businesses to challenge decisions by safety regulators.
SHP Online. Where’s that watchdog?, Hazards magazine and ‘Who you gonna call?’ contact list for HSE offices. HSE’s contact webpage • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Law fails blacklisted agency worker
The construction giant Carillion has admitted a construction worker was blacklisted because of his trade union activities and efforts to improve site safety, but has escaped responsibility because he was an agency worker. The revelation came during an employment tribunal brought against the firm by engineer and former UCATT safety rep Dave Smith.
Blacklist blog • Daily Mirror • Construction Enquirer • Morning Star • Socialist Worker • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Employers must track three day-plus injuries
Proposed changes to the official injury reporting system will not exempt employers from a legal requirement to record most injuries sustained at work. The Health and Safety Executive says from 6 April 2012, subject to parliamentary approval, the legal requirement to report to the authorities injuries requiring more than there days off work will change - but that doesn’t mean employers do not have to track these three day-plus injuries.
HSE information note and related guide • Unite safety rep alert • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: London Olympics facing sweatshop allegations
The London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog) is probing claims over poor pay and working conditions at a Chinese factory where toy Games mascots are being made.
SACOM news report and full criticism of Locog • The Sun • BBC News Online • Huffington Post UK • Morning Star • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Woman blows up factory that killed her dad
A woman whose father was scalded to death at a Norfolk soup factory in 1995 said she had gained “closure” after being given the opportunity to blow it up. Sarah Griffiths, 41, triggered the demolition of the former Campbell's factory tower in King's Lynn on 15 January.
Lynn News • BBC News Online • Houston Chronicle • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Assaults at work increased last year
Physical assaults at work increased last year but threats of violence fell, official statistics have revealed. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) report, based on British Crime Survey (BCS) and RIDDOR reports, reveals there were an estimated 341,000 physical assaults to British workers during the 12 months prior to the interviews, up 10 per cent from the previous year.
Violence at work: Violence at work statistics from the 2010/11 British Crime Survey & RIDDOR, HSE, January 2012 [pdf] • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

USA: Miscarriages in nurses linked to work exposures
Nurses who worked with chemotherapy drugs or sterilising chemicals were twice as likely to have a miscarriage as their colleagues who didn't handle these materials, a US study has found. Nurses who gave patients x-rays had a slightly elevated risk of miscarriage too, about 30 per cent higher than nurses who didn't work with x-rays; and nurses who handled sterilising agents, such as ethylene oxide or formaldehyde, more than an hour a day also had a doubled risk of miscarriage, but only during the second trimester. Christina C Lawson and others. Occupational exposures among nurses and risk of spontaneous abortion, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, published online ahead of print, 30 December 2011 • MedlinePlus •  Mother Nature Network • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Driver left in a coma after digger horror
A worker suffered severe injuries when his excavator struck a bridge on the M1 motorway in the East Midlands. Simon Foulke, a maintenance fitter with engineering contractor Van Elle Ltd, was driving a wheeled excavator during widening work on the motorway between Junctions 25 and 28 when its boom hit a bridge.
HSE news release • Mansfield Chad • Construction Enquirer • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Molten metal sprayed on a second worker
An aluminium casting company has been fined £6,000 after a man was burned by molten metal at its Worcester factory in a repeat of an earlier incident. Asim Qureshi, 41, was operating a die cast machine at JVM Castings Ltd when molten metal sprayed from the back of the machine on 27 July 2010.
HSE news release • Worcester Standard • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Britain: Severed finger rap for bubble wrap giant
A multinational manufacturer has been prosecuted after a worker lost three fingers in a bubble wrap making machine. Milton Keynes Magistrates' Court heard Daniel Winters, 29, was cleaning debris from the machine at Sansetsu (UK) Limited’s Milton Keynes factory, when his right hand became caught on an “in-running nip” and was trapped between two powered rollers.
HSE news release • Milton Keynes Today • Risks 540 • 28 January 2011

Hazards news, 21 January 2012

Britain: TUC says stand up for safety
The TUC is gearing up for the biggest ever national workplace health and safety event on 28 April. It has designated Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 a ‘Day of activity to defend health and safety’, which is facing an unprecedented attack.
TUC Workers’ Memorial Day 2012 webpage, leaflet [pdf] and poster [pdf] • TUC call for action • Hazards 'remember the dead, fight like hell for the living' images and WMD artwork gallery • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Union concern at increased abuse of shopworkers
The retail union Usdaw has expressed concern at a ‘huge leap’ in abuse of shopworkers. The union was commenting after the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC’s) annual survey of retail crime found the total number of reported incidents of verbal abuse, threats and violence against shopworkers rose by 83 per cent in 2011, driven by a more than three-fold increase in threats and a five-fold increase in incidents of verbal abuse.
Usdaw news release and Freedom from fear campaign • BRC news release and Retail Crime Survey 2011 [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Korea: Speed-up led worker to set himself on fire
A South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself alight after management responded to his request to slow the pace of production by stepping up discipline. The 44-year-old trade unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition after his 8 January protest at the engine plant in Ulsan.
Labor Notes • Economic Times • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Cruiseliner tragedy should be a wake-up call
Maritime unions have blamed inadequate safety measures for Europe's worst maritime disaster in a generation. Nautilus International said the 14 January wreck of the massive Costa Concordia cruiseliner should be a wake-up call to the entire industry.
Nautilus UK news release • ITF news release • Morning Star • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Unite criticises Tory ‘smokescreen’ on unions at work
The Conservative Party should turn its attention to the challenges facing the economy instead of “peddling distortion” about the union role, the union Unite has said. The union was commenting after a failed attempt by Tory MP and former Barclays investment banker Jesse Norman to introduce legislation to reduce facilities and time provided by public sector employers for trade union work.
Unite news release • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Global: Apple supplier audit reveals abuses
Electronic gizmo giant Apple, the company that brought us the Apple Mac, i-phone and i-pad, seems to be adding a far more candid appraisal of problems in its global supply chain to its business portfolio. In January, the firm published its previously closely guarded list of 156 suppliers, after a succession of reports had highlighted safety, labour and environmental abuses in some of the firms.
Apple Supplier Responsibility 2012 Progress Report and Supplier Responsibility website • Financial Post • This American Life • International Campaign for Responsible Technology • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Vibration caused ongoing health problems
A plater who suffered permanent damage to his hands after he was exposed to vibrating tools at work has received a second dose of compensation. The 54-year-old GMB member from Doncaster developed the painful wrist condition carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) after working with vibrating machinery for 25 years.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Union protection extends outside of work
A UNISON member who was involved in a car smash and left needing spinal surgery has received compensation with the help of union lawyers. The grandmother-of-four from County Durham, whose name has not been released, suffered a slipped disc after her car was hit from behind by a 4x4 as she was waiting at a roundabout.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Europe: Temp jobs are bad for your health
A study of workers in the European Union has found getting stuck in a series of temporary jobs has a significant negative effect on your health. Researchers from Germany’s Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI) looked at data from 27 European countries, including the UK, to evaluate the impact of temporary employment on health.
Christoph Ehlert and Sandra Schaffner. Health effects of temporary jobs in Europe, Ruhr Economic Papers, Number 295 [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Workplace dust contributed to miner’s heart death
A former coal miner died as a result of an industrial disease, an inquest has ruled. Although Thomas Gill died on 24 September last year as a result of a heart condition, the inquest heard a lung condition, caused by more than 30 years of dusty work on the coalface, was a “major factor” in his death.
News and Star. TUC ‘Dust in the workplace’ report [pdf] • Hazards ‘Dust up!’ campaign and report • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Job pressures led to suicide
A Hampshire firefighter who took his own life had been taken on too much work, an inquest has heard. Father-of-three Martin Coles was found hanged in a wooded area in Wickham on 9 August last year.
Portsmouth News • More on work-related suicide • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Unions welcome Grayrigg rail death prosecution
Unions have welcomed a decision by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) to prosecute Network Rail over the rail crash at Grayrigg in which one passenger died. Margaret Masson, 84, from Glasgow, died after the Virgin train derailed on the West Coast Main Line in Cumbria in February 2007.
ORR news release • ASLEF news release • TSSA news release • BBC News Online • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Suspended sentence after fall death
A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after worker Robert Jozwiak, 44, was killed when he fell through a roof at a disused factory unit in Leicester. Musa Suleman was given a 12 month prison sentence suspended for two years and was also ordered to pay compensation of £13,800 to Mr Jozwiak's family and full costs of £17,337.
HSE news release and Shattered lives webpages • Leicester Mercury • Daily Mirror • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Businessman fined £112k over roof fall death
A Liverpool businessman has been fined £112,000 after a labourer died following a fall from the roof of an industrial unit, just months after another worker was injured in a fall at the same site. John McCleary fell 15 feet while fitting roof panels at the construction site in Toxteth being managed by Taj ul Malook Mann, who failed to report the incident to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
HSE news release and falls webpages • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Steel beam crushing death was preventable
Specialist crane supplier JH Carruthers Ltd has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed when a large steel beam fell on him at an incinerator in Slough, Berkshire. Colin Dickson, 38, of Motherwell, Lanarkshire, died when the temporary suspension points on a suspended beam he was under failed at the Lakeside Energy from Waste installation in Colnbrook.
HSE news release • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Horrific death of plastics technician was avoidable
An experienced technician at a plastic products factory in Cornwall was killed after he was crushed between the plates on a machine used to make plastic lids. Shaun O'Dwyer, 54, died in the incident on 30 May 2008 at the Curver UK Ltd factory.
HSE news release and guide on safety at injection moulding machines [pdf] • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Social care firm fined for violence risks
A social care organisation has been fined for exposing workers to the risk of violence and aggression. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched an investigation at Dimensions (UK) Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation that provides support services for people with learning disabilities, after a support worker was kicked in the eye by a client on 31 December 2009.
HSE news release and health and social care webpages • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Britain: Safety fraudsters given jail terms
Health and safety fraudsters are facing lengthy jail terms after being caught in two separate scams. Gurpreet Singh and Parampreet Singh took health and safety tests on behalf of other construction workers to obtain skills cards and eight people were sentenced, five given jail terms, for fraud after more than £500,000 was claimed from two colleges for safety training that did not take place.
Construction Enquirer • BBC News Online • CITB-ConstructionSkills health and safety test • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Canada: Red Cross tarnished by asbestos links
A board member of the Canadian Red Cross, criticised for her ties to the asbestos industry, has resigned abruptly from the humanitarian group’s governing body. The departure of Roshi Chadha came days after the organisation had rallied behind the "valued member" of its team, spurring protests from asbestos victims and campaigners around the world.
Montreal Gazette • International Ban Asbestos Secretariat • Risks 539 • 21 January 2012

Hazards news, 14 January 2012

Britain: This time, it’s personal protective equipment
The TUC is investigating the use of personal protective equipment at work, from the tip of your steel toecaps to the top of your hard hat. The union body says it is concerned that workers may not be getting the coverage they require and may even end up paying for the purchase and upkeep of legally required protection at work.
TUC survey on the use of Personal Protective Equipment at work • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

USA: Arrest warrant on professor after lab death
A university chemistry professor could face a jail term on charges relating to the horrific death of a UCLA laboratory research assistant. Sheri Sangji, 23, suffered severe burns on 29 December 2008 while working with tert-butyllithium (tBuLi), a substance that will spontaneously ignite when exposed to air, dying from her injuries on 16 January 2009.
LA Times. UCLA statement and 6 January 2012 message to staff from the UCLA chancellor. The Pump Handle • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Unpaid overtime equivalent to 1m extra jobs
The two billion hours of unpaid overtime worked last year would be enough to create over a million extra full-time jobs, the TUC has calculated. It says the total amount of unpaid overtime worked last year was 1,968 million hours - worth a record £29.2 billion to the UK economy.
TUC news release • CWU news release • Work Your Proper Hours Day, 24 February 2012 • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Tackle teacher stress or pay, says union
Schools must tackle soaring teacher stress, Scottish teaching union EIS has said. The union was speaking out after revealing the union had settled a six figure out-of-court compensation claim for a member who suffered a stress-related psychiatric injury after the employer failed to act on a series of warnings about excessive workloads.
EIS news release • The Scotsman • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Power station pilots joint safety training
A major energy firm is working with Unite to encourage union safety reps to take a bigger workplace health and safety role. Drax Power Ltd is implementing a programme of joint manager and safety rep training, with the full backing of the union.
Unite news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Nuke firm ignored safety warnings
Managers at a major nuclear firm had dismissed safety concerns raised by workers moments before the dangerous job led to a worker suffering a serious injury. The GMB member from Cumbria broke her right ankle after she was ordered to move heavy archive boxes down a flight of three narrow steps at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Seascale in February 2010.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Cancer strikes 50 years after exposure
A shipyard worker developed a deadly cancer 50 years after being exposed to asbestos in Merseyside’s shipyards. The 80-year-old Unite member from Liverpool was diagnosed with the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma in February 2011.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Newsagent caused cleaner’s painful trip
A street cleaner has been awarded compensation by the courts after a newsagent failed to dispose of his waste responsibly. The GMB member from Bedfordshire was cleaning outside shop fronts in Luton in January 2004 when her feet became entangled on plastic newspaper strapping which had been dumped in a public rubbish bin.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Health and safety culture? I wish…
David Cameron’s resolution last week “to kill off the health and safety culture for good” has drawn fresh criticism from unions, safety bodies and corporate killing campaigners. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said the prime minister’s comments “represent probably the biggest verbal assault on health and safety by a senior politician for many years, which is saying something, given that only last summer the PM was blaming the English riots on our health and safety culture.”
Strongerunions blog • FACK news release and ‘Sod you’ postcard to David Cameron and Nick Clegg • London Evening Standard. The Guardian. HR Magazine.
The TUC is organising a day of action to defend health and safety on 28 April, International Workers Memorial Day – watch this space • We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Cameron is ‘irresponsible and dangerous’
The prime minister’s “repeated attacks” on workplace health and safety measures “are irresponsible and dangerous,” the union representing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors has warned. Commenting after David Cameron’s 5 January resolution to a business audience that his government would ‘kill off’ health and safety, Prospect said two recent reviews commissioned by the government had concluded the existing system worked.
Unite news release and Left Foot Forward blog • Prospect news release • ASLEF news release • BFAWU news release • Morning Star • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

USA: Official probe into enforcement opt-outs
A US scheme that allows “model” firms to opt-out of official workplace safety inspections is the subject of a top level investigation. A federal task force is conducting a “top-to-bottom review” of the controversial Voluntary Protection Programme (VPP), a top Department of Labor official has confirmed.
CPI news release • In These Times • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Scaffolding industry backs tighter safety regulation
The scaffolding industry is calling for tighter safety regulations. In a move which calls into question government claims that industry sees safety regulations as a “burden”, the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) wants an amendment to the Work at Height Regulations to require licensing of scaffolders.
NASC news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Poorly trained scaffolder suffered devastating injuries
A poorly trained and supervised scaffolder from Manchester will never walk again after being crushed by metal tubes that fell from a crane. David Collins, a 31-year-old father of two who worked for Bury firm Spectra Scaffolding, suffered severe injuries to his head, back and leg and is now paraplegic.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Men arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following a death at a Holmfirth construction site. Mark James Taylor, 36, from Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, is thought to have been killed while using a Green Piling Ltd pile-driving machine on the construction site on 18 April 2011.
Huddersfield Daily Examiner • Construction Enquirer • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Campaign call after rise in betting shop violence
A campaign is being launched to tackle violence against betting shop workers, after a rise in robberies and assaults at bookmakers in the west of Scotland. Community’s Scottish regional organiser, John Paul McHugh, said: “The union believes that until betting shops completely remove the operation of lone-person working and beef up all other measures, we will not deal with the vulnerability of workers in betting shops.”
BBC News Online • Community betting shop ‘No single staffing’ campaign • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Global: Conflict and downturn encourage child labour
Worsening global security and the economic downturn has led to a marked increase in child labour worldwide, a study has found. Research by the risk analysis firm Maplecroft concluded 76 countries now pose ‘extreme’ child labour ‘complicity risks’ for companies operating worldwide.
Maplecroft news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Palletways fined after neck broken fiasco
A logistics firm has been fined after a forklift driver broke his neck and was then walked around the workplace in search of a first aider, who eventually drove him to the wrong hospital. Palletways (UK) Ltd employee Barry Hill, 60, suffered the injury when a computer cabinet he was loading onto a trailer fell on him.
HSE news release and guide, Rider-operated lift trucks: Operator training [pdf] • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Gas exposed Palletways workers hospitalised
A total of 23 workers at Palletways warehouse in Livingston, Scotland, were hospitalised with breathing difficulties after a container of denatonium benzoate - which is used to make inedible liquids, such as anti-freeze, bitter – leaked after being punctured by a forklift.
BBC News Online • 14 January 2012

Britain: Metal firm worker crushed by 1.5 tonne weight
Palletways (UK) Ltd’s has been prosecuted for safety failings after a maintenance engineer was crushed by a 1.5 tonne weight that landed on his back. The worker suffered a broken shoulder, two cracked ribs and the tops of three vertebrae were snapped off when he was trapped between the counterweight of a large zinc galvanizing machine and a junction box.
HSE news release • The Star • BBC News Online • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Chocolate giant fined over broken finger
High street chocolate chain Thorntons has been fined after a worker broke her finger while operating a wrapping machine. Ellen Yardley, 37, was attempted to clean part of a foil wrapping machine that had become covered in caramel when the cloth she was using became tangled in rotating parts and her right hand was dragged into the machine.
HSE news release • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Britain: Two-thirds of nurses face work abuse
Six in 10 nurses have been verbally abused over the last two years while working in the community, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned. Eleven per cent have also been victims of physical abuse, RCN found.
Morning Star • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012   

Global: ILO workplace stress prevention checkpoints
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has produced a manual of “easy-to-apply checkpoints for identifying stressors in working life and mitigating their harmful effects.” According to ILO the negative impacts of stress “can lead to poor work performance, high accident and injury rates, and low productivity.”
Stress Prevention at Work Checkpoints. Practical improvements for stress prevention in the workplace, ILO, January 2012 [full text pdf] • Developing a workplace stress prevention programme • Risks 538 • 14 January 2012

Hazards news, 7 January 2012

Britain: TUC slams Cameron move ‘to kill off safety’
A claim by the prime minister that UK businesses are in a “stranglehold” of health and safety ‘red tape’ and compensation claims has been dismissed as “out of touch” by the TUC. David Cameron, speaking to a business audience on 5 January, said the government was “waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses.”
Prime Minister’s Office news release • BBC video clip of David Cameron’s comments on the safety ‘monster’ • London Evening Standard • Maidenhead Advertiser • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: You want the truth, prime minister?
The TUC has said the prime minister’s resolution “to kill of the health and safety culture for good” exposes how he is more interested in listening to unfounded business grumbles than evidence that millions are hurting and tens of thousands die each year because their workplaces were not safe enough.
TUC news release • We didn’t vote to die at work campaign • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Russia: 53 oil workers die as oil rig capsizes
The sinking of an oil rig on 18 December in icy seas off the Russian coast claimed 53 lives, officials have confirmed. A total of 67 people were on board when the Kolskaya rig capsized under tow in icy seas off the country’s east coast. Russian media have questioned why so many people had been on the rig, when regulations stipulated that only the captain and a small crew were allowed to be there while it was being towed. ICEM news report • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Governors can’t manage schools asbestos
Responsibility for the management of asbestos in state-funding schools must not be transferred to school governors, trade union campaign group has warned. The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) is calling on the government to abandon its plans to make the governors of all state-funded schools responsible for the health and safety of their pupils and staff.
NUT news release • Asbestos in Schools • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Union safe case gets a promising reception
MPs have heard that work is set to get more dangerous as government cuts in the official safety watchdog’s resources continue. The warning came at a reception in parliament in December 2011, organised by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors’ union Prospect.
Prospect news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Global: Call for action on media killings
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has urged the United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon to take drastic action against the governments of the most dangerous countries for media. The call came as the global union body revealed 106 journalists and media personnel were killed at work in 2011.
IFJ news release • NUJ news release • INSI • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Disability is a health and safety issue
Health and safety can play a “strong role” in ensuring fair treatment of workers with disabilities, according to the union UNISON. A new guide from the public sector union says seven million people of working age – almost 20 per cent of the working age population - have a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability.
UNISON health and safety guide to disability [pdf] • Usdaw ‘Talking about mental health’ briefing and poster • TUC disability and health and safety webpages • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Union alert on sexual assaults on health workers
The public sector union UNISON has called for extra vigilance by employers to avoid health workers being put at risk of sexual assaults by patients. The call comes after a 58-year-old care assistant received compensation after she was sexually assaulted at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough when she was helping a patient in the shower.
Thompsons Solicitors news releases on the UNISON call for vigilance and assault compensation case • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Australia: Unions ‘speak up for health and safety’
Australian unions have launched a nationwide awareness campaign to inform workers of their rights and employers of their obligations under newly harmonised health and safety laws. Announcing the ‘Speak Up’ campaign, Michael Borowick, assistant secretary of the union federation ACTU, said. “They have an iron-clad right, under law, to elect their own health and safety representatives,” adding: “These reps act as watchdogs within the workplace, making employers comply with the law well before regulators have to become involved.”
ACTU news release and Speak Up website • Canberra Times • Nine News • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Injured workers need safety insured
A welder whose hands have been left permanently damaged by his work has lost half of his compensation because the firms responsible have folded and their insurers could not be traced. Unite says its member’s plight highlights why an Employer’s Liability Insurance Bureau (ELIB) is necessary.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Redundancy threat follows injury claim
A worker who suffered permanent damage to his hand at work was threatened with redundancy when he pursued a claim for compensation. A few months after initiating a compensation claim, GMB member Craig Dunwell was forced to sign a letter abandoning his compensation claim when his employer threatened to make him redundant. Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Print fumes caused occupational asthma
A printer who developed asthma when he was exposed to dangerous fumes at work has received compensation.  Unite member Jason MaCann, 35, was diagnosed with the condition after he was exposed to isocyanates used in laminating machines at FFP Packaging in Northampton.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Civil servant gets payout after office fall
A civil servant has received £8,000 in compensation after needing surgery following a fall in the workplace. PCS union member Marilyn McKenzie, 58, needed an operation on her left knee after she tripped over the lid of a socket hatch embedded into the floor at her offices at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Sheffield.
Thompsons Solicitors news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Panel finds safety reps are ‘crucial’ offshore
Safety reps are ‘crucial’ to ensuring safety offshore and should have more support from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a government-commissioned report has concluded. A panel headed by Professor Geoffrey Maitland of Imperial College, London concluded “workforce safety representatives have a crucial role to play.”
DECC news release • Offshore oil and gas in the UK – an independent review of the regulatory regime, December 2011 [pdf] • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Occupational health is a victim of the NHS cuts
The coalition government’s pledge to protect the NHS has been questioned after four out of five doctors said they had seen patient care suffer as a result of health service cuts during 2011 – and occupational health is one of the key casualties.
The Guardian • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Government accused of mine rescue ‘complacency’
A Labour MP has accused the government of “serious complacency and a total lack of understanding of mining”. Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain accused Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, of a “disgraceful” government response to his call for state aid for mining rescue services after four men died in the flooded Gleision valley colliery on 14 September 2011.
The Guardian • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Global firm fined over factory worker's death
A global manufacturer has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed at an Andrex factory in Barrow-in-Furness. Christopher Massey was struck by a piece of machinery while working on a night shift at the Kimberly-Clark plant on 8 November 2007.
HSE news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: HSE warning on hiring self-employed workers
Firms hiring self-employed contractors must be vigilant as they may not have the competence to do the job, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned. The warning came after Roger Jary, a 79-year-old self-employed maintenance contractor, died while carrying out minor repairs on a rented bungalow for an estate agent.
HSE news release • BBC News Online • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Workers buried in giant cement mixer
One worker died and another suffered severe shock after being buried under tons of limestone dust in a giant cement mixer. Hanson Quarry Products Europe Ltd and Robert Alan Taylor, who was then trading as Quarry Maintenance Service Engineers, were both prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at Taunton Crown Court. 
HSE news release • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Steel giant prosecuted after workers are crushed
A global steel firm has been fined after two workers suffered major injuries when a warehouse door, weighing over 300 kilograms, collapsed on them. The employees at Corus, now Tata Steel UK Ltd, were trying to repair a roller shutter door at its plant in Workington when the door and a supporting pillar gave way.
HSE news release • Construction Enquirer • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Britain: Farmers fined after worker is run over by tractor
Three farming brothers have been fined after a farmworker was severely injured when he was run over by a tractor with a faulty handbrake. Derek Benney, Richard Benney and Roger Benney, of FH Benney and Sons, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following the incident at Higher Nansloe Farm near Helston in September 2010.
HSE news release and agricultural maintenance webpages • Western Morning News • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

Global: Workers’ Memorial Day 2012
It’s time to start preparing for Workers’ Memorial Day, Saturday 28 April. In December, TUC called on “unions, trades councils, and others to make 28 April 2012 a 'Day of activity to defend health and safety'”. Now, Hazards magazine has produced a series of new ‘remember the dead, fight like hell for the living’ images for union reps to use in the campaign.
Hazards ‘remember the dead, fight like hell for the living’ images and WMD artwork gallery • TUC call for action • TUC Workers' Memorial Day webpages • Risks 537 • 7 January 2012

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