Latest News & Articles
Index
E Coli outbreak kills four in a Japanese restaurant chain
Obsessive cleaning standards increase risk of depression and rise in allergies
Ladder Accident Leads to Prosecution
Government wants to change ‘Best Before & Sell By’ dates
Building firm fined following pupil of work experience injury
Top Shop Fined for Exposing Contractors to Asbestos
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay
'Heroic acts' guideline for police and firefighters issues by Crown Prosecution Service
15 March 2011- New Contract Gain
Government Response to Lord Young report on Health & Safety
Scottish resort fined £120k for Legionnaires’ death
ARTICLES
Director of Southern Property Maintenance given suspended sentence for roof fall fatality at Bognor Regis Bed Store
11 May 2011
Richard James, sole director of Southern Property Maintenance, escaped a jail sentence but was given a suspended sentence and £120,000 fine over the death of an employee who fell through the roof of a Bognor Regis Rosbeys Bed superstore.
The employee Shane Offer, 21, fell through a skylight on 2 June 2009 whilst undertaking maintenance work. He was airlifted to hospital but died from his injuries.
James had been found guilty on four counts of breaching Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act by failing to ensure his employees’ safety.
Mr James, of Southern Property Maintenance, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 150 hours of community service at Lewes Crown Court on Friday May 6th 2011.
He was also fined £120,000 plus £21,000 costs but he was acquitted of a charge of gross negligence manslaughter.
E Coli outbreak kills four in a Japanese restaurant chain
Four customers died and dozens of others suffered food poisoning after eating raw beef served at a barbecue restaurant chain in Japan.
Two young boys and two women contracted the E Coli 0-111 strain of food poisoning and died following meals at restaurants of the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu chain in Toyama and Fukui prefectures.
The restaurant chain say they were assured by the wholesaler that the meat was safe to be eaten raw. The wholesaler however, says the meat was meant to be cooked.
The beef had been supplied sliced, vacuum-packed and was stored in refrigerators. The meat supplied by a Tokyo meat wholesaler produces the beef exclusively for the barbecue chain.
Obsessive cleaning standards increase risk of depression and rise in allergies
19 April 2011
Researchers in the USA have postulated that the western worlds growing obsession with cleanliness could be leading to an increase in incidents of depression illness and explain the rise in allergies.
There have been several articles and papers over recent years suggesting that cleaner homes and offices are leaving people (especially children) exposed to lower levels of dirt and bacteria which in turn are leading to their immune systems becoming weaker.
The old adage of eating a pound of dirt before you die may indeed prove to be correct!
This new study is suggesting that weaker immune system is also impairing people’s brain functions. Those with weaker immune systems tend to react more strongly when they do get exposed to higher levels of dirt and dust which leads to inflammations and increased incidents of allergic reactions. These side effects can impair or slow the brains production of serotonin the so called happy chemical and consequently lead to higher incidents of depression.
The study reports that in Britain 10% of the population suffer from depression while in poorer third world countries such as Nigeria only 1% report signs of depression.
In developed countries our environments are much cleaner so our immune systems never learn how to deal with infectious agents.
Scientists are now experimenting with the use of anti inflammatory drugs to see if these would benefit patients reporting depression. Similar drugs are already used to treat hay fever and similar allergic reactions. In 1980 only 10% of the population reported suffering from allergies whilst today it is 30%.
Ladder Accident Leads to Prosecution
14th April 2011
Chalk Lane Hotel, Chalk Farm, Epsom has successfully been prosecuted by Epsom and Ewell BC has following an accident where a 70-year-old handyman was knocked unconscious after using a faulty ladder. The handyman used a wooden stepladder that was found to be old and dry and had been badly botched. The ladder gave way causing him to fall to the floor and hit his head on a marble surface. An air ambulance was called following the accident. Red Hill Magistrates Court found the Chalk Lane Hotel guilty of three health and safety offences: failure to conduct an adequate risk assessment, failure to properly plan for working at height and a failure to maintain work equipment. The company was fined £9,000 and charged £300 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Government wants to change ‘Best Before & Sell By’ dates
17/4/2011
The government wants to make changes to the existing system of ‘Use By’ and ‘Best Before’ dates on food used by retailers and manufacturers to reduce the amount of edible food thrown away by consumers. New guidelines are expected to be unveiled which will provide better information for shoppers and to help them make better decisions on when to throw away foods.
Currently some consumers throw away perfectly edible foods because they have past one of the guidance dates especially those with the ‘Best Before’ dates as these tend to be foods that can be stored for longer periods and the dates are usually advisory rather than mandatory like ‘Use By’ dates.
The theory is that this move will potentially save households hundreds of pounds a year. Instead of marking food "best before" a certain date, retailers will in future have to produce labels which give details of the health risks associated with individual foods that remain on shelves or in the fridge for a lengthy period before being consumed. Some form of ‘Use By date will be retained for high risk foods such as shellfish.
Households in Britain dump 8.3 million tonnes of food and drink a year most of it ending up in landfill, according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).
The programme estimates that more than 5million tonnes of this is edible. Dumped food each day in Britain includes 5 million potatoes, 4.4 million apples, a million loaves of bread and a million slices of ham, WRAP estimates.
Wasting food is thought to cost the average family with children £680 a year - with households throwing as much as a quarter of all their food and drink purchases.
Building firm fined following pupil of work experience injury
15 April 2011
A Sheffield building firm Alan Fleischer was fined £1,500 plus £1,320 costs after a 15 year old pupil was injured falling 2.4 meters from a ladder whilst on work experience placement.
The HSE took the prosecution because although workplacement pupils could carryout general labouring duties they should not be expected to work at height. The HSE felt that the risks of working at height are well known in the building industry and the firms risk assessment should have taken this into account.
Top Shop Fined for Exposing Contractors to Asbestos
14 April 2011
Retailer Topshop and the firm they employed to carryout a refit were both fined a total of £36,538 by a court following an HSE prosecution. Arcadia who own Topshop employed Vincents shopfitters to remove airconditioning, sprinklers and other ceiling mounted equipment some of which had been previously sprayed with asbestos fire proofing material.
The work was allowed to go on even though a previous survey had identified the presence of asbestos. 45 construction staff were exposed during the work.
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay
13 April 2011
A doctor at the department of nutrition, food and exercise at Florida University has announced that an 'apple diet' saw their cholesterol of a study group of 80 women drop by almost a quarter in six months, while they also lost weight.
The women aged 45 to 65 were asked to eat 75 grams of dried prunes a day for a year, and the other 80 were asked to eat the same amount of dried apple, in addition to their normal diets.
After 6 months blood samples showed a 23 per cent decrease in LDL cholesterol, which is known as the 'bad cholesterol as well as lower levels of bio-markers linked to heart disease, such as C-reactive protein.
As an added bonus they also shed on average 3.3lbs (1.5kg).
New report on deaths around water
11 April 2011A new incident database produced by the National Water Safety Forum has recorded more than 400 people died from accidents or natural causes in water across the UK in 2009.More than half were on inland water and a quarter on the coast.
'Heroic acts' guideline for police and firefighters issues by Crown Prosecution Service
11 April 2011
In response to media criticism of the police and other emergency services for not taking positive action to help save people’s lives due to fears over breaching their duties to take reasonable care for the health & safety of themselves and of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work under section 7 of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1970 the Crown Prosecution Service has issued new guidance dealing with so called ‘Heroic Acts’.
The guidance making it clear that police officers and firefighters who risk their own safety while carrying out “heroic acts” will not face prosecution, providing no one else is put at risk. It makes clear that officers’ decisions to act in such a way are likely to be taken in fast moving and dynamic situations. “In circumstances in which a police officer or firefighter acts in such a heroic way, it is very unlikely that a jury would find that such actions were not reasonable,” it states.
Police and fire officers come under this duty. But the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has stated it would not be in the public interest to prosecute under Section 7 where officers decide to risk their own safety to perform their duty.
Examples include putting themselves at risk to prevent potential loss of life or to prevent crime or arrest a suspected offender.
The CPS says while it is “very unlikely” an officer would be investigated in such circumstances, prosecutors may be asked to consider whether such a “heroic act” should be subject to prosecution under Section 7.
The guideline states that each case must be considered on its own merits and prosecutors will apply the full code test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
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Vizion 21 Ltd is pleased to announce a new client. The newly established Events & Hospitality company Coco Bhaloo has decided to use Vizion 21 to provide it with food safety and health & safety support. Coco Bhaloo will be based in Park Royal in North London and will be operating in the events and corporate hospitality market.
Government Response to Lord Young report on Health & Safety
The Government has begun to outline its response to Lord Youngs review of health & safety enforcement in the UK. At a recent meeting, attended by representatives from business, trade unions, health and safety organisations and HSE, the government outlined a series of further reforms which the minister said herald, "a new start for health and safety regulation for Britain's businesses". The main proposals announced by the government are to:
- modernise the current health and safety inspection regime getting inspectors to focus on high risk locations and irresponsible employers with poor accident records;
- introduce a register of health & safety consultants as a means of eliminating 'cowboy' health and safety consultants. This step is already underway and the register has already received over 1,500 registrations;
- take steps to ensure that health and safety advice and guidance for small and low risk businesses is simple, accessible and as far as possible bureaucracy-free;
- continue with its review of existing health and safety law with a view to scrapping measures that are an unnecessary burden on business.
Scottish resort fined £120k for Legionnaires’ death
28 March 2011
Piperdam Golf & Leisure Resort near Dundee operator’s failure to control Legionella bacteria in its water systems has landed it a £120,000 fine after a former guest died of Legionnaires’ disease. When Angus Council investigated, it established that Legionella bacteria in the hot tub and two of the shower heads in the Piperdam lodge was the same strain that had caused the customers death. At Forfar Sheriff Court on Friday (25 March), the company was fined £120,000, reduced from £150,000 following its guilty plea.