Health and Safety News

One in every three care workers are victim to physical assault by patients every year. At least this is the number that is reported. A number of such incidents go unreported every year too. Care workers are also at the receiving end of verbal abuse and aggression from the patients. This is the opinion that [...]

In the light of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill tragedy, a safety and health lawyer from the UK has suggested that a global safety standard for the gas and oil industry be put in place. Bond Pearce LLP’s Hilary Ross strongly feels that consistent safety standards can help save lives and protect the environment. [...]

A 24-year-old worker’s death in a recent fire and explosion incident at the Lindsey oil refinery, Lincolnshire, has prompted independent investigation demands by the union Unite.
The man died when a crude oil distillation machine, stationed close to him, caught fire and exploded. As many as 50 fire-fighters were rushed to the spot to [...]

The explosion at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot on December 11 2005 was the largest in peaceful times in Europe. It recorded a tremor reaching 2.4 on the Richter scale and the blast was heard more than a hundred miles from the accident site. The large scale fire and devastation followed after 250,000 litres of [...]

Union Usdaw made it clear at an annual conference held recently that workers should be assured of safety while they commute to and from work and not just during working hours.
Usdaw is conducting an ongoing campaign called Freedom from Fear that seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against store workers.
At the conference, Deputy [...]

After having pleaded guilty for charges of assault on a Tube supervisor and a police officer, the guilty man was given a 12 week suspended sentence at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The incident occurred sometime back this year at Goodge Street station.
The man in question, Derek Acton, committed the offence on 27 February this [...]

One in four British workers have never taken part in a fire evacuation mock drill at their workplace despite a government advisory that a full drill must be performed at least once a year, a new study has revealed.
The survey of more than 2,000 adults by insurer RSA also saw 5 per cent [...]

Teisutis Macius was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment and fined by the Brent Magistrates’ Court on March 25 for threatening an employee of the London Underground.
The accused pleaded guilty of committing racially aggravated threatening behaviour and was ordered to pay £100 to the victim and spend five weeks in prison. He was also given an [...]

A worker of a waste management company from the Black Country was badly injured because of falling from a height when the poorly maintained guardrail broke.
The Walsall & Aldridge Magistrates Court ordered AB Waste Management Ltd to pay £12,000 as fine and £1,836 as costs for infringing Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of [...]

A construction company was convicted for the death of its 25-year-old employee based on a video that was recorded during the making of a TV documentary.
Regentford Ltd, a Hackney company, was asked to pay £250,000 as a fine in a case involving the breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. [...]