Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 2nd May 2024 Issue no. 1112
Your industry news - first
The original and best - for over 20 years!
We strongly recommend viewing Cleanzine full size in your web browser. Click our masthead above to visit our website version.
Ineos fined after employee seriously injured
Ineos has been fined £400,000 after an employee was seriously injured while carrying out a routine task at its chemicals site in Grangemouth, Scotland, in November 2019.
The worker, 47, was attempting to clear a sump that contained a caustic solution, when he fell into the sump which had inadequate grating. He sustained permanent scarring to his right leg and was in pain for four weeks following the incident, before returning to work in the December.
The sump had needed emptying as its contents had reached the high-level design threshold the previous day.
After laying out various hoses in preparation of emptying the sump, the worker entered the sump area, stepping onto the corner of the grating with his right leg. The grating gave way, allowing the leg to fall into the sump and become saturated with the caustic solution. He was submerged in the solution for three seconds before pulling himself out of the sump and was later treated at the burns unit at St John's Hospital in Livingston.
A Health & Safety Executive investigation into this incident found Ineos had failed to undertake a risk assessment of the work involved. Also there was not a safe system of work in place. The grating was not secured and there were no barriers in place to prevent a fall into the sump.
HSE guidance on risk assessments states that employers, or an appointed competent person, must identify hazards before work takes place, before assessing and controlling the risks involved. Findings should then be recorded, with employers then urged to review the control measures they have implemented to ensure they are working. More on this can be found at:
"The duties on employers to undertake a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks and to provide a safe system of work are absolute within health & safety legislation and well understood," says HSE inspector Lindsey Stein. "The dangerous properties of caustic are widely known and this incident could so easily have been avoided with the implementation of straightforward control measures identified through assessment."
Debbie Carroll, who leads on health & safety investigations for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), says:
"This accident could have been avoided had the risks been recognised and appropriate systems of work put in place in ensuring workers were protected from harm when working in this area.
"Ineos Chemicals Grangemouth Limited's failure to assess the risks posed resulted in the severe injury and permanent disfigurement of one of their workers.
"This prosecution should remind duty holders that a failure to manage and implement effective measures can have serious consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure."
Ed: This unfortunate accident and reporting of the legal proceedings reminded me that during the pandemic, when doctors, nurses and frontline staff desperately needed hand sanitiser, Ineos Hygienics - part of the same group - really came up trumps, building six factories in under 10 days each, to produce millions of bottles to supply thousands of hospitals with product free of charge. We've heard so much about the negative side of product/equipment/PPE etc. supply, with £billions 'misappropriated' globally, that I felt it prudent to share news of a very altruistic gesture.
11th April 2024