A chemical firm has been fined £150,000 after three workers suffered serious injuries following an explosion.
Personal Hygiene Services (PHS) Ltd pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to a health and safety breach back in October 2010, where 150 aerosol cans were put in a nearby shredder at Burscough industrial estate. Employees were caught in a fireball and surrounding buildings had to be evacuated while firefighters dealt with the blaze.
A joint investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency found the company allowed 150 cans containing extremely flammable substances to be put into a shredder at the site. They found that PHS had no procedure for checking the contents of boxes of waste materials delivered to the site. The company also failed to ensure that a chemical specialist monitored the waste being put into the shredder to check for flammable substances.
A risk assessment carried out in April 2010, was found to be wholly inadequate after the company wrongly identified the risk of aerosols being added to the shredder as "very unlikely".
Principal HSE Inspector Neil Rothwell said, "The chemical waste industry has the potential to be extremely hazardous, and PHS could and should have done more to protect the lives of its employees and the public. The explosion and fire led to three workers being seriously injured and caused considerable disruption in the local area."
A spokeswoman for PHS said, "We have co-operated fully with the HSE and Environment Agency at all times during the course of their investigations and have taken steps to prevent any such incident happening in the future, including reviewing and updating our processes and investing in state-of-the-art equipment in all of our relevant sites."
