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.
HSE has issued a Safety Alert advising users of certain types of scissor lifts to make daily safety checks after five deaths in three separate incidents when the lift overturned.
Following a review by HSE into three fatal accidents within a 4 year period in Europe, all involving the overturn of a JLG 500RTS scissors lift, it has been established that in all three cases:
HSE has issued a Safety Notice to advise on the action required so that the public, staff, and other workers are not put at risk by the design, construction and operation of powered perimeter gates.
During the summer of 2010 two children died after becoming trapped in powered gates.
Following earlier alerts this new Safety Notice provides further advice to landlords, commercial owners or facilities managers of properties with powered perimeter gates on what they must do to ensure the safety of people in the vicinity of such gates.
HSE inspectors are to launch an intensive inspection initiative aimed at stopping dangerous practices on building sites
The inspection initiative runs from Monday 14 February 2011 till Friday 11 March and will focus on smaller sites concentrating on working at height, good order on site and asbestos surveys.
This is the fourth year the construction inspection initiative has run and, as before, inspectors will be making unannounced visits to sites across GB.
Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.
Work at height
7 January 2011 - A fine of £5,000 has been issued after three workers fell through skylights at the same industrial unit in Warrington on three separate occasions - leaving one of them paralysed.
HSE prosecuted Bizspace Investments Ltd after a caretaker from Accrington, fell through a fragile skylight while cleaning guttering. The worker suffered multiple rib fractures and severe bruising.
Another Bizspace employee was sent to take photographs of the scene but fell through a different skylight. He landed feet-first on a mezzanine floor and escaped injury.
Three weeks later a 62-year-old man employed by Massey Roofing and Building Contractors, was sent to repair the skylights. While fixing a skylight he fell more than four metres to the ground below. He sustained severe spinal injuries, leading to him being paralysed from the waist down.
Bizspace Investments Ltd, of Finchley, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £9,000.
Anthony Massey, of Bury, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the same Act. As he has been declared bankrupt, Mr Massey received a conditional discharge which means that he will not be fined as long as he does not commit another offence in the next twelve months.
14 January 2011 - Saleh Properties Ltd, of Leicester endangered the lives of both its workforce and the public while demolishing an old factory in Leicester city centre.
An HSE inspector found that the building was at risk of collapse, workers had removed structural parts of the building without properly supporting it. Workers were spotted standing on the roof, demolishing parts of the building by hand, and were working at height without suitable equipment to prevent falls. Missing safety signs and fencing were ordered to be installed to ensure members of the public were kept away from the unsafe building.
Saleh Properties Ltd pleaded guilty to breaching Regulations 9 (1)(a) and 28 (2) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and two breaches of Regulation 6 (3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,084.
12 January 2011 - A company set up by Rotherham Council to manage and improve council houses has been fined, after allowing a plumber to be exposed to up to 50 times the legal limit for asbestos.
2010 Rotherham Limited employed a sub-contactor, Nugas of Barnsley, to remove an old bathroom and install a level-access shower room at a house.
An asbestos survey carried out for 2010 Rotherham on a property next door highlighted the presence of asbestos in the bathroom, these results were not passed on to Nugas. The result was that their worker unknowingly removed tiles bonded to a wall of asbestos insulating board (AIB), causing significant damage to the wall. He was not wearing any protective clothing nor respiratory protection.
The company pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act and was fined £7,000 with £3,418 costs.
12 January 2011 - A property management company was fined £30,100 after admitting a series of offences which led to workers being exposed to asbestos fibres.
MA Estates Limited of Halifax was prosecuted by HSE for failing to properly manage the removal of asbestos-containing materials when employees were replacing a roof of a factory.
The HSE investigation found the company had failed to carry out an asbestos survey or risk assessment, had no licence to remove asbestos, had given staff no instruction or training in removing it, and had left workers exposed - with no attempts to limit the spread of asbestos or exposure to it.
Health and safety consultants are being invited to sign up to a new independent register that is intended to become a new benchmark for standards in the profession.
The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR) has been opened in response to recommendations in the Government report - Common Sense Common Safety. The register has been established by professional bodies representing general safety and occupational health consultants across the UK, with support from HSE.
Improve the health and safety of your business by attending a health and safety event near you.
Places are available at the following Working Well Together (WWT) events
HSE has opened a three-month consultation on proposed changes to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995.
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