Recent safety alerts and notices

It is important to keep the right people up to date with failures in equipment, process, procedures and substances used in the workplace.

Safety alerts are for major faults that would result in a serious or fatal injury and where immediate remedial action is required.

Safety notices are usually issued to facilitate a change in procedure or it requires an action to be undertaken to improve the level of protection or instruction in a potentially dangerous situation. It must be acted upon within a reasonable time, if a time period is not stated. It is not as immediate as a safety alert.

Safety alerts and notices
Date Topic Bulletin No Industry
03/2025 Risk of collision with offshore installations from attendant vessels[1] ED01-2025 Offshore installation duty holders, owners and operators of offshore vessels, windfarm operators, principal contractors, contractors.
11/2024 Risk of exposure of laboratory staff to biological agents due to missing clinical information[2] ED03-2024 Workers at diagnostic laboratories are being put at risk of infection because of missing information on specimen request forms.
05/2024 Risk of serious injury from motion compensated gangways[3] ED02-2024 Incidents involving motion compensated gangways (MCG) within the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) or Renewable Energy Zones have resulted in serious injury. Processes and systems should be in place, as part of a wider safe system of work, to ensure that motion compensated gangways are safe during deployment, retraction and when in use by personnel transiting to and from offshore installations, offshore windfarms and offshore energy structures.
05/2024 Service lifts in offshore and onshore wind turbines[4] ED01-2024 A wind turbine service technician suffered serious injuries when his hand was trapped between fixed and moving parts of a service lift. The worker was able to place his hand into an aperture whilst sending the service lift down using the ‘one touch to operate’ external controls. The external controls were positioned on the moving parts, and the design of the landing gates and associated guarding did not prevent him reaching the moving lift car which crushed his hand against the gate.
04/2024 Manufacture, storage and carriage of thermites and thermite containing articles[5] CEMHD01-2024 HSE has identified that thermites, and thermite containing articles, meeting the criteria for being classified for transport in Great Britain and the ADR area as Class 1 dangerous goods (as explosive substances and articles) are currently being transported either as non-dangerous goods or as Class 4.1 dangerous goods (flammable solids).
12/2023 Overfill of vapour recovery units[6] CEMHD02-2023 A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation into a gasoline overfill of a carbon adsorption vapour recovery unit (VRU) revealed concerns with the design of the VRU.
12/2023 Lorry loaders crush risk from powered tilting stabilisers[7] EPD04-2023 On some lorry loaders with powered tilting, or swing-up, stabilisers people can be crushed when the stabilisers are being retracted. There is a risk of serious injury or death.
10/2023 Radiograph duplication and falsification[8] CEMHD01-2023 This safety alert highlights that the non-destructive testing (NDT) process is vulnerable to tampering. HSE and other regulators have investigated several instances where NDT has been falsified.
09/2023 Motorsport/Leisure Track Safety: trackside vehicle restraint barriers[9] EPD03-2023 This safety notice is aimed at Motorsport/Leisure track owners, operators, event organisers and other persons with duties for the safety of activities on tracks/circuits. This notice is particularly relevant to leisure track/circuits (permanent and temporary).
09/2023 Manage risk of damage to grating systems (walkways and deck areas) on offshore installations during rig moves[10] ED09-2023 Dutyholders (including Operators and owners of offshore installations) undertaking rig moves on the UKCS
08/2023 Unsafe bolts on BendPak XPR series two-post vehicle lift[11] FOD02-2023 BendPak XPR series two-post vehicle lifts have a half-moon-shaped arm restraint gear on each arm which is either welded or bolted. On some of the lifts with the arm restraint gear attached with bolts, the bolts do not meet the required strength standard increasing the risk of a major incident.
06/2023 Pop-up toilets: Risk of crushing[12] FOD01-2023 Someone was killed when working underneath a raised telescopic pop-up toilet. He was in the void below when the pop-up toilet lowered, crushing him.
05/2023 LPG forklift truck fire risk[13] EPD02-2023 HSE is aware of a number of fires on, and around, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered forklift trucks and other similar vehicles that have occurred during starting.
05/2023 Risk to offshore installation mooring lines outside 500m safety zone[14] ED3-2023 There is a risk of fishing vessels colliding with offshore installation’s mooring systems when trawling near to, but outside of, exclusive 500m safety zones.
04/2023 High concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in cargo and slop tanks[15] ED2-2023 Operators of floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) and floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessels and floating storage units (FSU) in the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
03/2023 Unsafe use of floor grating systems in oil and gas, and wind generation[16] ED1-2023 Offshore installations, wind generation units and sea going vessels
01/2023 Exposure to diacetyl vapour in food and drink manufacture[17] EPD01-2023 Employers, and the self-employed, in food and drink manufacture who use diacetyl
05/2022 Mast climbing work platforms: Failure to detect mechanical failure in drive units leading to uncontrolled fall of platforms[18] BSCD1-2022 Construction and all other industry users
04/2022 Ear loop respirators/masks do not provide protection as tight fitting RPE[19] EPD1-2022 Those required to use tight fitting RPE at work

Health and safety bulletins archive[20]

Link URLs in this page

  1. Risk of collision with offshore installations from attendant vesselshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/risk-collision-offshore-installations-attendant-vessels.htm
  2. Risk of exposure of laboratory staff to biological agents due to missing clinical informationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/risk-exposure-lab-staff-biological-agents.htm
  3. Risk of serious injury from motion compensated gangwayshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/serious-injury-motion-compensated-gangways.htm
  4. Service lifts in offshore and onshore wind turbineshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/service-lifts-in-offshore-onshore-turbines.htm
  5. Manufacture, storage and carriage of thermites and thermite containing articleshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/manufacture-storage-carriage-thermites-containing-articles.htm
  6. Overfill of vapour recovery unitshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/vapour-recovery-overfill.htm
  7. Lorry loaders crush risk from powered tilting stabilisershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/lorry-loaders.htm
  8. Radiograph duplication and falsificationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/radiography-duplication-falsification.htm
  9. Motorsport/Leisure Track Safety: trackside vehicle restraint barriershttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/trackside-vehicle-restraint-barriers.htm
  10. Manage risk of damage to grating systems (walkways and deck areas) on offshore installations during rig moveshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/grating-systems.htm
  11. Unsafe bolts on BendPak XPR series two-post vehicle lifthttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/bendpak-vehicle-lifts2.htm
  12. Pop-up toilets: Risk of crushinghttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/popup-toilets.htm
  13. LPG forklift truck fire riskhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/forklift-fires.htm
  14. Risk to offshore installation mooring lines outside 500m safety zonehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/offshore-mooring-lines.htm
  15. High concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in cargo and slop tankshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/hydrogen-sulphide.htm
  16. Unsafe use of floor grating systems in oil and gas, and wind generationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/floor-grating-systems.htm
  17. Exposure to diacetyl vapour in food and drink manufacturehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/diacetyl-vapour-exposure.htm
  18. Mast climbing work platforms: Failure to detect mechanical failure in drive units leading to uncontrolled fall of platformshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/mast-climbing-work-platforms-mechanical-failure.htm
  19. Ear loop respirators/masks do not provide protection as tight fitting RPEhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/ear-loop-respirators.htm
  20. Health and safety bulletins archivehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/bulletins-archive.htm

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Updated:2023-03-16