Fire risk ignored in use of flammable chemical

An assembly operative suffered serious burns after highly-flammable acetone caught fire.

His employer Parmeko plc pleaded guilty at Leicester magistrates’ court on 13 June to a breach of s2(1) of the HSWA 1974 and was fined £10,000. The company, which makes transformers for military and commercial applications, was also ordered to pay £1910 costs.

The court heard that on 2 October 2007, Naran Hirani, was using acetone to clean a small batch of transformers at the factory. He poured some of the solution into a one-litre plastic jug, and used a small brush to clean debris and oil from the transformers.

But the acetone was being used without any attention given to fire risk arising from uncontrolled vapour release near sources of heat, flame or sparks. In this case, a solder pot running at up to 400ºC was positioned at just over an arm’s length from the acetone, and caused the liquid to ignite.

Investigating inspector Sidat told SHP: “What the company should have done was carry out a risk assessment and also have invested in plunger cans, safety cans, and self-closing metal bins. What [workers] were doing was taking rags used for cleaning and putting them in bin liners. The receptacles they should have used should have been made of stainless steel or mild steel. The company had a folder full of safety data sheets, and it had started some COSHH assessments, but not for this work.”

Since the incident, the company has implemented all the improvements recommended, and has tightened up healthy and safety policies generally. It told the court that it deeply regretted the incident, and it had no previous health and safety convictions.
 

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.

Listen now!