h&s briefs

HSE launches new kerb handling guidance
New guidance on handling kerbs to reducing the risks of musculoskeletal disorders has been launched today by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). It coincides with a ‘Kerbs Forum’ that the HSE has been running for the past 18 months to secure increased use of mechanical handling devices during kerb laying.

Scaffolding firm fined 30k for fatal accident
A scaffolding firm, Crowe Fabrications, has been fined 30,000 and ordered to pay costs of 12,000 after a worker was killed and another seriously injured when a London scaffold rig unbalanced in July 2002.

Firms forced to pay 650k for employee death
Fines totalling 650,000 have been imposed on two companies following the death of a woman at a British Sugar factory. British Sugar and contractor, VM Plant, were prosecuted following the death of the dispatch clerk in February 2003. the clerk was run over by a shovelling vehicle at the firm’s factory in Bury St Edmunds, in Suffolk.