Welcome to the latest edition of Construction Infonet.
Construction Infonet is a free eBulletin from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to provide a regular update on health and safety issues for all in the construction industry.
Some of you pointed out that the last edition contained the wrong link to the Busy Builder leaflet - Running a small site.
Apologies – here is the correct link.
Nearly one in four of the construction sites visited by the HSE during March failed safety checks.
During unannounced visits, inspectors focused on refurbishment and roofing work to ensure that any work at height was being done safely and that the sites were in good order.
Inspectors gave orders for work to be stopped immediately in 359 instances for either unsafe work being carried out at height or where sites lacked 'good order'.
The Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations 2010 came into force on 6 April 2010.
The regulations require HSE to be notified of conventional tower cranes installed on construction sites.
HSE has launched a new 'Worker Involvement' campaign called 'Do Your Bit'. This initiative will run for the next year and is aimed at both employers and workers. A new website is available to help employers involve workers more and HSE are also offering two new subsidised health and safety training courses to either:
The courses are designed to help organisations achieve the potential benefits associated with a collaborative approach to health and safety at work. These include lower accident rates, increased productivity, efficiency and quality.
Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.
30 March 2010 - A Llanelli cladding firm, Ammex Ltd, has been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £6,750 costs after an employee fell through an open skylight at a retail unit he was working on.
The employee was carrying a roof panel with a colleague when he fell almost four metres through an unprotected skylight onto a mezzanine floor below. He sustained serious injuries including fractures to his ribs and back, nerve damage to his leg and also memory and hearing loss.
06 April 2010 - Footage filmed for a TV documentary about medics has been used to help secure a conviction against a company carrying out construction work after the death of a 25-year-old.
Mason and plasterer Mr Balwinder Kumar, from Forest Gate, was re-pointing brickwork when he fell from scaffolding at the rear of a building in High Street, South Norwood, Croydon. He suffered severe head injuries in the first storey fall, and was taken to hospital where later he died.
When HSE went to investigate, the scaffolding Mr Kumar had been standing on had been removed. During the investigation it emerged that a BBC television crew filming the documentary 'Trauma', had been accompanying the medical staff who attended the site, and HSE obtained footage showing scaffolding in very poor condition with insufficient guard rails and an inadequate working platform.
Regentford Ltd, of Hackney was fined £250,000 after being convicted of breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974. They were also ordered to pay costs of £71,603.01.
13 April 2010 - Rubb Buildings Ltd, a Gateshead building firm has been fined £100,000 after one of its employees fell to his death while dismantling a hangar roof at Bristol International Airport. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £48,795.36.
Steven Watson, aged 30 years, fell approximately 30 feet onto the concrete floor below, and died at the scene from multiple internal injuries. He had previously cut through the PVC tarpaulin roof and as he went to climb back in to the mobile work platform, he fell through the section he had cut away.
The HSE investigation found that there were no other protective measures in place and Rubb Buildings Ltd should have ensured that Mr Watson had no need to climb directly onto the roof.
13 April 2010 - 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. They were also ordered to pay £15,698.30 in costs.
Phillip Pearce, aged 55, had worked as a fitter at the company's depot for less than three months when he died on 16 August 2006. His job was to prepare the accommodation units, which were then hired out to construction companies.
On the day of the incident, Mr Pearce climbed onto the top of two units stacked on top of each other to help attach lifting chains so that the top unit could be lifted down. He fell more than five metres and died at the scene.
Ashtead Plant Hire Co Ltd (trading as Aplant) had a written procedure for work on top of accommodation units in its depots and at customers' sites. This required people to wear a safety harness and inertia reel line and climb a secured ladder. If they slipped or fell, the line would lock and prevent a serious fall. HSE's investigation found that workers at the depot had not been issued with this kit or been trained to use it and most did not know the company had a special procedure for doing this work.
21 April 2010 - A sole trader who erects farms buildings has been fined £15,000 after his employee broke his leg when he fell three metres from the roof of an Aberdeenshire farm building.
Mr Robert Peter Mackie, 36, who was trading as RDM Engineering at the time of the incident was prosecuted after the incident. He pleaded guilty to of breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
An employee was fixing a roof sheet onto the roof of a new potato store when he slipped and fell from the edge of the roof. He landed on an adjacent roof below, breaking his leg in two places. There were no safety measures in place, such as guard-rails to prevent falls from this section of the roof and the work at height had not been properly planned and controlled by Mr Mackie.
Further information
7 April 2010 - Clyde Valley Housing Association Limited was fined £70,000 after a security guard died from carbon monoxide poisoning on a construction site in Burbank, Hamilton.
Hamilton Sheriff Court heard that on 6 February 2008, the security guard was overcome with fumes from a petrol generator used inside the site office.
19 April 2010 - A Lancashire-based construction company, Paddle Limited, has been fined £10,050 and ordered to pay costs of £13,224.45 for a series of safety breaches. The prosecution follows an unannounced visit by HSE to the site run by Paddle Ltd in December 2008.
An HSE Inspector discovered inadequate or missing fencing to keep the public away from construction work. There were also unsuitable sanitary and welfare facilities for workers on the site despite the sub-zero temperatures. There was a dirty portable toilet with no washing facilities, and workers were expected to eat, get changed and shelter in a dirty, unheated caravan.
HSE Inspectors throughout the country have found such poor working conditions that multiple prohibition and Improvement notices have been issued to Paddle Ltd since 2005. These were for dangerous scaffolding, poor site welfare, unprotected excavations and failures to secure and fence their sites.
Further information
22 April 2010 - Nationwide Building Contractors Limited of Hampshire has been fined after visiting HSE Inspectors found refurbishment work in progress without adequate enquiries regarding the presence of asbestos containing materials (ACMs).
Inspectors found refurbishment work being carried out without an adequate check (survey) for asbestos or asbestos-containing materials.
A Prohibition Notice was issued immediately stopping construction work. Further investigations found large amounts of asbestos pipe lagging in walls and floor voids where work had been undertaken.
The company was fined £4,500 for offences under Regulations 5, 11 and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. Magistrates indicated that the fine would have been considerably higher if the defendant had not now been in liquidation.
Further information
Some 170,000 people in the UK suffer deafness, ringing in the ears or other ear conditions caused by excessive noise at work. The potential effects of noise induced hearing loss is shown in a brief video clip - reproduced from "The Hearing Video" by the kind permission of WorksafeBC.
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