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September 19, 2014

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Environment Agency prosecuted over avoidable saw injury

The Environment Agency has been fined £5,000 after an employee was badly injured by an unguarded circular saw.

The 48-year-old from Coniston, who does not want to be named, had to have the middle finger on his left hand amputated to the top joint as a result of the incident at the Bridge End Depot in Levens near Kendal on 19 April 2013.

The Environment Agency was prosecuted by HSE after an investigation found it had become standard practice for employees to use the saw without a guard after finding it difficult to cut large pieces of wood with the guard in place.

Kendal Magistrates’ Court heard the worker had been using the circular saw on a multi-function woodworking machine to cut two-inch thick pegs. The Environment Agency planned to use the pegs to hold wooden boards in place for new steps until the concrete set.

The court was told the circular saw was used to cut pegs once every few months, but no risk assessment had been carried out for the work and supervision had been insufficient. This meant managers were unaware it was being used without a guard.

The Environment Agency was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £1,364 in prosecution costs on 17 September 2014 after pleading guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Inspector Anthony Banks said: “An employee has suffered an injury that will affect him for the rest of his life because the machine he was using was unsafe.

“Workers should never have been able to use the circular saw without the guard in place, but the Environment Agency failed to carry out a risk assessment or to properly monitor the work.

“Sadly it had become standard practice for the saw to be used without a guard, making it almost inevitable that someone would eventually be injured.”

The organisation has since reviewed its procedures and no longer uses the saw at its Levens site.

Approaches to managing the risks associated Musculoskeletal disorders

In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, we hear from Matt Birtles, Principal Ergonomics Consultant at HSE’s Science and Research Centre, about the different approaches to managing the risks associated with Musculoskeletal disorders.

Matt, an ergonomics and human factors expert, shares his thoughts on why MSDs are important, the various prevalent rates across the UK, what you can do within your own organisation and the Risk Management process surrounding MSD’s.

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