News

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a consultation on proposed Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations, which would require certain information about tower cranes to be registered with them.

In January this year, the HSE board agreed that a national register of tower cranes was needed to address public concern over a number of high profile incidents involving tower cranes, which have resulted in eight deaths since 2000.

The proposed regulations would require employers who use conventional tower cranes assembled on site to give certain information to the HSE, which would then be made publicly available in a national register. This information would include the name and address of the crane's owner, the address of the construction site where its installed, the crane's make and age, the thorough examination date, the name and address of the employer for whom the thorough examination was made, and whether that examination revealed any defects. A flat fee of £20 per registration is proposed.

According to the HSE, the register would improve the control and management of risks in tower crane use, provide further reassurance about the control and management of those risks to workers and others, and provide better intelligence about crane use to inform any enforcement action taken by them.

An online questionnaire asks for stakeholders' views on what types of cranes should be covered, whether the regulations should be limited to conventional tower cranes on construction sites only or also those in other locations such as stockyards, factories, what information should be included on the register, how information should be submitted and how access to the register should be managed.

Responses must be in by 9 October 2009. More information on how to respond is available on the HSE website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd221.htm?ebul=consult/jul09&cr=01

For more information, see:

• Notification of Conventional Tower Cranes Regulations SI 2010/333.

Farmer Roy Kelso has been fined a total of £17,500 after pleading guilty at Dungannon Crown Court to two breaches of Health and Safety Legislation. The case was brought by the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI).

The case relates to an incident that occurred on 30 April 2008 on a farm at Sandholes, Cookstown, County Tyrone. Ms Imelda Hagan, an elderly lady who resided in a farmhouse, died as a result of injuries sustained when a Manitou telescopic handler operated by Mr Kelso struck Ms Hagan during a reversing manoeuvre. Subsequent enquiries by the HSE NI revealed that Mr Kelso had not ensured that there were adequate devices such as mirrors fitted to the telescopic handler to ensure all round visibility when operating the vehicle.

Consequently, Mr Kelso pleaded guilty to charges for failing to ensure the safety of members of the public and for not having all round visibility when operating the telescopic handler.

After the hearing, Mr Brian Pryce, investigating inspector with the HSE NI said, "It is vital that all farmers who operate telescopic handlers have received adequate training for the operation of the vehicle and that all devices such as mirrors are fitted to ensure they have all round visibility when operating the vehicle. Ensuring that mirrors are fitted and correctly set must be part of the routine maintenance of the vehicle.

An international firm has been fined more than £700,000 after two of its employees died in 2004 following an argon gas leak. The workers collapsed after the gas leaked from a large pressure vessel in a pit at the Bodycote HIP Ltd's Hereford metal refining plant.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who brought the case against the firm, informed the court that the two men were found on the stairs that lead to the pit. The HSE said that on the day of the incident, the pit's oxygen alarm system was switched off, and the ventilation system, which could have saved the men's lives, was not running.

The company admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The HSE said the firm had failed to learn the lessons of a similar double fatality at a plant in California three years earlier. The HSE also said that there was no evidence that one of the men had received any appropriate safety training

In mitigation, the company said that complacency had developed, but claimed there was not a wholesale disregard for health and safety and that since the incident the health and safety deficiencies have been remedied.

HSE inspector Luke Messenger said, "Both these tragic deaths were not only regrettable, but also entirely preventable. Confined spaces can be found in a wide range of workplaces and these deaths should serve as a reminder to all industries of the dangers of this type of work."

Two businesses have been fined a total of almost £30,000 after hazardous waste residue was left in storage drums sent to a scrap yard.

Teesside Magistrates’ Court heard contaminated drums were crushed without being cleaned. The crushed drums were among a load of drums taken to a scrap metal dealer, who rejected the waste and alerted the Environment Agency.

Middlesbrough waste disposal business UK Resource Management Ltd (UKRM) was fined a total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £4,750 costs after accepting it had been grossly negligent. UKRM took 160 metal drums, with plastic liners, from chemical manufacturer William Blythe Ltd (Wm Blythe).

Contaminants included chromium trioxide (chromic acid), which is corrosive, carcinogenic and toxic, and reacts with organic material to catch fire. Although UKRM's drum washing machinery had broken down and its usual operator was on holiday, the company chose not to wait until the drums could be crushed and disposed of safely.

Trevor Cooper, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said UKRM held a waste management licence allowing it to keep and treat various wastes. The licence conditionally required waste drums to be washed before crushing, to ensure any hazardous waste residues were removed. Mr Cooper said it was only by "sheer luck" the drums did not ignite when crushed.

District judge Martin Walker said, "It is a vital part of the Environment Agency's work to protect the environment and in this case there was the potential for people to be injured because the chemicals were potentially very serious."

Paperwork from Wm Blythe to accompany the drums inadequately described the waste as being "metal" and did not specify they had contained hazardous waste. The Environment Agency submitted this omission meant the company fell well below its legal obligation. Wm Blythe was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £4,750 prosecution costs.

For more information see the:

• Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2005/894;
• Hazardous Waste (Wales) Regulations SI 2005/1806

The Brazilian Government has said it will lodge a formal complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), over the alleged export of illegal waste from the UK. The move comes as three men were arrested as part of an Environment Agency investigation into the export of 99 shipping containers of waste to the South American country.

The complaint will be based on the Basel Convention, which bans shipments of toxic waste from industrialised nations. Officers from the Agency's national crime team raided three properties in Swindon this month as part of their investigations into the origin of 1,400 tonnes of material reportedly found in Brazilian ports. Wiltshire police arrested three men in connection with the waste.

Authorities in the South American country have claimed that at least two of the containers were filled with a mixture of household and clinical waste, including syringes and condoms. The Agency have said they will take back the waste from Brazil and dispose of it correctly, but have not yet confirmed what the containers had in them.

Liz Parkes, head of waste and resource management at the Agency, said the arrests marked significant progress in the investigation. "We are working with the shipping lines for the return of the waste, at their own expense, and are planning to carry out an investigation of the containers once they have been released by Brazilian authorities and returned to the UK. The Agency enforces the export of recyclable waste from England and Wales and will not hesitate to prosecute any company or individuals found to have breached the strict laws on the export of waste."

Currently, waste can be sent abroad for recycling, but not for disposal. The maximum penalty for such a breach of rules is an unlimited fine or up to two years in prison.

For more information see:

• Decision 1993/98/EEC, on movements of waste (The Basel Convention).

Strabane District Council has been fined £20,500 for storing mixed municipal waste without obtaining a waste management licence beforehand.

Strabane Magistrates' Court found 11 breaches of the waste management legislation. Northern Ireland Environment Agency officers found the Council operated Newtownstewart site was in poor condition. There were concerns an insecure shed was open to the elements and had no drainage from the loading bay.

A NIEA spokesman said, "In spite of repeated warnings from the NIEA and a notice directing that waste bulking activities must cease and the waste already there be removed, Strabane District Council continues to operate the site."

Strabane District Council pointed an accusatory finger at the planning service and the NIEA. A spokesperson said the Council had been, "Trying to secure planning permission for the site for four years. Our application has failed to progress despite our best efforts professionally and politically. Officers have been contacting the planning service on an ongoing basis and we have written to the Environment Minister. This delay in the planning application has equated with a delay in securing a licence with the NIEA. It is unfortunate both agencies could not have co-operated more."

The Council defiantly concluded, "We are confident that this facility does not cause a nuisance; there has been no pollution and we have received no complaints about the site. We will continue to operate out of this site on a temporary basis until another waste transfer site is identified with the planners."

For more information see:

• Waste Management Licensing Regulations (Northern Ireland) SR 2003/493.