Mistras ETS Ltd, which provides industrial radiography equipment, has been fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £4,930 in costs after one of its employees suffered radiation burns when working in a radiography bay. The company admitted to breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Ionising Radiation Regulations SI 1999/3232.
Teeside Crown Court heard that the unnamed employee had been working with X-ray equipment in a radiation bay when a separate team was asked to test safety equipment and warning beacons, which also used X-ray.
This other team adopted an ad hoc test method, which included turning off safety access controls and warning alarms for radiography bays. Whilst one of the tests was undertaken, the injured worker was in the radiation bay while the X-ray was energised. As a result, the worker's fingertips were exposed to radiation, which was above the maximum dose legally allowed, and suffered tissue damage.
As a result of his injuries, the worker had to have surgery and his injured fingers still remain numb. However, he has now been able to return to work.
A subsequent Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found that the other workers had not used X-ray to test safety equipment before, and there were procedures in place to follow in order to undertake safe testing; hence the ad hoc approach.
HSE inspector Paul Wilson said after the hearing, "The level of X-ray radiation to which this worker was exposed was capable of causing serious ill-health, including the potential for death if the X-rays had hit vital organs of his body. This incident could have been easily prevented if Mistras ETS Ltd had ensured proper planning and control of the work. Deviation from agreed safety protocol had become commonplace and on this occasion an employee was exposed to dangerous levels of X-ray radiation because important safety devices had been turned off."
