Results just in for the March 2010 NEBOSH General Certificate local exam held by MESH Consultants have shown our tutors have excelled with a 100% pass rate achieved.

The group returned 1 Distinction and 4 Credit passes which continues the excellent results achieved by the MESH trainers. So far in 2010 our candidates have achieved 2 Distinctions and 10 Credit passes.

One candidate expressed his thanks by commenting that:

The way that the course was laid out over a period 3 days a week for 5 weeks was the best way to do the course. With the support that you get from the lecturer and the carefully planned homework, it gives you the confidence to build on what you have learnt in the classroom and put more into practice in your daily work on site.

The additional out of hours advise given by Chris was also a help as if you were stuck on anything he was always at the end of a phone offering advice and assistance.

Why not contact MESH to see how we can provide you with training that produces excellent results?

The HSE has provided free access to its STEP Tool which can be used by employees, managers and safety professionals. STEP is an eLearning package developed by the HSE, providing slips and trips guidance through interactive learning.

It is an easy way to learn about slips and trips, how they are caused, why preventing them is important and how to tackle them. STEP includes quizzes, videos, animations, case studies and interactive sequences to enhance the learning experience.

Getting staff and managers to complete the STEP package will help their understanding of slips and trips, however to reduce accidents you will also need to ensure action is taken in your workplace.

The general course is suitable for many different industries. The HSE has also designed four other courses for Food Manufacturing, Hospitality & Catering, Education and the Health Services. 

The training takes around 15-20 minutes to complete the beginner section and around 1 hour for the intermediate. The beginner section could easily be used as part of a tool box talk presentation.

Access can be at http://www.hse.gov.uk/slips/step/start.htm

More than 200 construction workers attended a special North East health and safety event to help reduce fatal and serious accidents at work.

In the last 25 years more than 2,800 people have died from injuries they received as a result of construction work and many more have suffered serious injuries or have been made ill. In 2008/09, there were 53 fatalities in the construction industry – that’s equivalent to one a week.

Builders, scaffolders, roofers, electricians, joiners, painters and other construction workers were given a series of presentations on topics such as how to protect themselves from the risks from silica dust – to advice on manual handling, at last month’s event in Billingham.

The event also marked the launch of a new construction industry awareness group for the region – Working Well Together North East – and follows the success of the Health and Safety Event and Exhibition at Gateshead International Stadium last year – an event run by the industry for the industry.

Rob Hirst, Principal HSE Inspector, said of the day that it was a huge success and the fact that so many construction workers attended shows just how important the industry considers health and safety issues.

The HSE were able to pass on a lot of helpful tips and advice and are confident that sessions such as this will contribute to making safer construction workplaces.

A man whose hand was crushed during a horrific workplace accident has received £57,000 in compensation, according to Thompsons Solicitors. The man needed two operations to save his hand following the accident at an outdoor equipment manufacturer.

He had reportedly worked for the manufacturing company for two years before the accident in November 2007. He was using a pipe bending machine to bend stainless steel when the machine started to shake and move around because the pipe was too thick for the equipment. His left hand was dragged into the machine and because the emergency stop device was faulty, his hand was trapped until a colleague could help him. Thompsons says the fault on the emergency device had been identified months earlier but nothing had been done to fix it.

He was forced to take five months off work after the accident while he underwent two operations to mend his hand and wrist. He now has a permanent disability to his wrist and hand, causing reduced movement and loss of strength.

Following the accident, the man contacted his union, the GMB, which instructed Thompsons Solicitors to pursue compensation. Thompsons argued the company had instructed him to use the wrong machine for the task and that the emergency stop button should have worked. The claim was settled out of court.

Paul Brown from Thompsons Solicitors said: “We see far too many cases where employees are asked to work on machines that are not designed for the job or where the emergency stop devices are broken. For the employer it is often something they mean to get round to; for the employee it is the difference between a healthy future and one with a disability.”

Are you putting your staff at risk of a workplace accident because your health and safety systems are not effective? At MESH we have highly competent consultants that can provide practical advice and support to your business; this will both keep your employees safe and the business legally compliant.

A man from County Durham has been prosecuted by the HSE after he injured himself and another person when repairing a sign over eight metres from the ground.

On 19 November 2009, Sohail Hussain, trading as Haris Signs, had been hired by the manager of the Metro Inn, Stockton, to carry out repairs to a wind-damaged sign above the entrance to the hotel. Mr Hussain, helped by another man, erected a 4.5m-tall scaffolding platform, on top of which was an extension ladder to get high enough to reach the sign, which was 8.62m off the ground.

Mr Hussain carried out the repair work from the ladder, while the other man stood on top of the platform, with nothing to prevent him from falling off the edge. Due to high winds and the unstable platform, it gave way, causing both men to fall onto the hotel car park below. Mr Hussain suffered injuries to his knee and the other man suffered a fractured right wrist and dislocated his right elbow.

Mr Hussain of Seaham pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, as amended. He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,000.

The HSE has prosecuted a Leeds freight company after a man was crushed to death unloading a case of glass from a cargo container. The worker, an admin manager from Leeds, along with two cargo handlers and a supervisor, were present as cases of glass were being unloaded from an open-top freight container at the logistics company’s container base in Stourton.

He was crushed when he tried to stop the final case, weighing approximately two tonnes, from falling as it was being lifted from the container.

The court heard that neither the 59-year old man, nor his colleagues, had received the appropriate training in lifting operations. There had been no risk assessment or formal planning carried out prior to the incident and the case had not been properly secured.

Roadways Container Logistics Limited pleaded guilty to breaching s.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 in relation to the incident. The company was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay £100,000 costs.

A plastic recycling factory in St Helens has been fined £15,000 after a worker had parts of two of his fingers cut off by blades on a high-speed fan.

At the time of the incident the employee was trying to repair a drying unit at Roydon Granulation Ltd when his fingers came into contact with the high-speed fan, which rotates 1450 times a minute. The employee suffered serious injuries to four fingers on his left hand, including the partial amputation of two.

An investigation by the HSE concluded that the company’s procedure for repairing the machine was inadequate. The company from Rochdale was prosecuted by the HSE for putting workers at risk.

The employee has still not returned to work more than a year on from the incident.

The HSE has issued a reminder to firms that to comply with the law, the preferred solution would have been for the workers to switch off and lock off the power supply to the fan with padlocks. Where this is not possible, then temporary guards should be put in place.

In this case no effective preventative measures were taken.
 
Roydon Granulation pleaded guilty to breaching s.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 which covers the duty of the employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all the employees. The company was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay court costs of £4,347.

Are you putting your staff at risk of a workplace accident because you don’t know how to create effective safe systems of work? Take a look at some of the companies MESH has supported to improve their health and safety or contact us for a no obligation quote.

A stationery manufacturer has been fined after admitting exposing a worker to a high voltage shock that left him permanently disabled.

The man was investigating a fault on a plastic welding machine at Chart Design Ltd in Wembley when his fingers came into contact (or very close contact) with components carrying several thousand volts.

The shock severely burned his right hand and forearm, and damaged several muscles. He was hospitalised for 14 days and has since had to undergo skin grafts. He has not regained full use of his right hand and has been unable to return to work.

A HSE investigation into the incident revealed that guard panels which should have prevented access to live circuits had been removed. Inspectors discovered that no record of maintenance checks was kept for any of the machines at the factory. The company also had no first aiders.
Chart Design Ltd of Wembley – pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at the City of London Magistrates’ Court. It was fined £4,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,330.

The HSE Inspector leading the case commented that “the man’s life has been turned upside down because of entirely preventable and basic safety failings. It is the responsibility of all managers to make sure that all maintenance work is properly planned and recorded and that adequate guards are fitted to all machinery when it is in use. If these simple things had been done it is unlikely that he would have suffered these horrendous injuries. But this incident could have been much worse – instead of losing the feeling in his fingers, he could have lost his life.”

The HSE has published a new report on measures that have been taken by bed manufacturers to successfully reduce manual handling injuries.

Employees in the bed manufacturing industry are around twice as likely to suffer manual handling injuries, such as back and upper limb disorders, than those in any other manufacturing sector.

This prompted the HSE, with the support of the National Bed Federation, to identify the key risk activities and encourage companies to identify solutions that would work best for them. The report is aimed at promoting good practice in the industry and identified a number of the highest risk activities in bed manufacturing.

In a series of seminars, bed manufacturers were given the report findings and asked to produce three-year action plans to show how they could improve health and safety in these areas.

Following this, the HSE noted that a range of improvements had been made by the seven pilot companies that were revisited, including the introduction of new mechanised equipment and handling aids, and better storage arrangements to reduce the need for manual handling.

One company nearly halved the number of manual handling injuries reported. Other companies noted that new ways of working to reduce manual handling had also increased their productivity.

A summary of the initiative can be accessed via www.hse.gov.uk

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