HSE warns employers about the safety of equipment after worker's hand is damaged by rotating blades

HSE/WM/191/2009 19 May 2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers to ensure they assess the safety of equipment and ensure that it is sufficiently guarded after an employee's left hand was severely damaged by the rotating blades of a valve that forms part of the extraction system in a metal recycling process.

HSE prosecuted JBM International Ltd, of Kingsilver Refinery, Hixon, Staffordshire, for its failure to make a suitable risk assessment of the safety of those operating the part of the process using the rotary valves of the dust extraction unit. The company was also charged with not ensuring that effective measures were taken to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery which had been in use for more than a decade.

JBM was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,614 by Newcastle-under-Lyme Magistrates' Court (on 19th May, 2009) after the company pleaded guilty to the two charges of breaching health and safety legislation. 

HSE brought charges against the company under Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 and Regulation 3(1)(a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 following its investigation into an incident that occurred, on 27th September 2008, on the company's premises.

A 34-year-old employee was investigating a possible blockage to the dust extraction unit by removing the collection bag and reaching up with his left hand to the exit opening of the extraction unit's rotary valve when his hand was severely damaged by the blades.

Speaking after the case, HSE investigating inspector Ian Williamson, said:

"Being able to easily access moving parts of the machine represented an obvious danger which meant that it was reasonably foreseeable that an injury could occur whilst reaching into the opening. The machine had been in operation for 10-15 years yet it had evidently not been subjected to a suitable risk assessment because it had not been engineered in any way to protect operatives.

''It is important for companies to ensure that they have fully considered all the risks their employees may face when using any equipment and the injuries could have been much worse." 

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Regulation 11 (1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: "Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken which are effective - (a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or (b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone."

1. Regulation 3(1) (a) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 states: "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of - the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work;"
2. Approved Code of Practice and Guidance 'Safe Use of Work Equipment - Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998' ISBN 978-0-7176-6295-1 obtainable from HSE Books: http://books.hse.gov.uk/
3. Further information on risk assessments can be found on HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk/risk/index.htm

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR West Midlands.