HSE in LEV roadshows
The Health and Safety Executive launched a series of interactive roadshows in March to help employers in industries such as welding and stonemasonry to understand the risks of exposure to dusts, gases, mists, fumes and vapours. The events were designed to encourage the proper use of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) systems, which remove dusts, mists, gases, vapours and fumes from the air so they cannot be breathed in, getting rid of any contaminants safely.
Fall death costs £215k
A plant hire company has been fined £200,000 for health and safety failings that lead to an employee falling five metres to his death. Ashtead Plant Hire, trading as APlant, admitted breaching health and safety rules in the Health and Safety Executive prosecution over the incident in August 2006 and was also ordered pay more than £15,000 in costs.
Corus fined £240,000
Multinational steelmaker Corus has been fined £240,000 after a lorry driver was crushed to death at its site in Staffordshire. The firm was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after three tonnes of steel plates fell on the worker in January 2007. It was also ordered to pay more than £112,000 in costs.
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Building sites fail checks
Nearly one in four of the construction sites visited by the Health and Safety Executive inspectors during March failed safety checks. The checks on 2,014 construction sites led to 691 enforcement notices being issued at 470 sites, with inspectors giving orders for work to be stopped immediately in 359 instances for unsafe work being carried out at height or lack of “good order”.
