Two companies and a manager have been fined a total of £440,000 after a fatality involving a worker who was crushing aerosol canisters.
Deeside Metal Company Ltd, of Saltney, Chester, and Jeyes UK Ltd, of Bromfield Industrial Estate, Mold, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to have proper controls in place to manage the extremely flammable materials that led to the incident. A separate charge was brought by the Crown Prosecution Service against the manager of Deeside Metal, Mr Robert Roberts.
Deeside Metal had received the canisters from Jeyes, who had failed to clearly label and segregate them from less hazardous waste.
The court heard that Roberts instructed workers to crush the canisters in a metal baler. When the baler was activated, a canister caught fire and an employee suffered fatal burn injuries. Neither company carried out suitable risk assessments before allowing workers to handle potentially hazardous materials such as aerosols, and both had failed to train or monitor staff.
HSE Head of Welsh Operations, Jane Lassey said, "Jeyes UK had a clear responsibility to ensure the canisters were labelled correctly and separated from non-hazardous waste, and to have procedures to prevent such dangerous waste being inadvertently removed from their site. By failing to do this, they put workers in danger. Deeside Metal Company lacked proper procedures for handling hazardous materials and operating dangerous machinery. They assumed the canisters were empty, but this proved to be a fatal error of judgement. This must serve as a warning to other companies handling potentially dangerous material about the consequences of not having safe working practices in place."
Deeside Metal pleaded guilty to charges under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations SI 1999/3242 and was fined £100,000 with £10,000 costs. Jeyes pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £330,000 with £50,000 costs. Robert Roberts pleaded guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £10,000.
Advice on risk assessments and handling hazardous material can be found on the HSE’s website.
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