Risk news

The implementation of health and safety procedures and making sure there is enough protection should be a thorough job and not an afterthought.

In some industries the level of safety wear and guarding on machines needs to be particularly high due to the materials used or the temperatures associated with a process.

A recent prosecution has served as an example of insufficient protection being provided, after a worker sustained burns from molten metal.

Every precaution should have been put in place due to the fact that metal was heated to temperatures of 650 degrees.

The worker was using a die cast machine, from the back of which the molten metal sprayed.

This should not have been possible as a guard should have been fitted as a safety measure preventing such an accident from occurring.

Further to this, the employee should have been dressed in protective clothing designed to prevent any accidental encounter with molten metal from reaching his skin.

Neither precaution was in place, meaning he received serious burns to his arm, leg, shoulder and face, for which he is still undergoing treatment.

Tariq Khan, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said: "The company's risk assessment had identified blow backs as a danger but did not include any measures to remove or reduce the risk. As a result of the company's failings, a man has suffered serious injuries which could easily have been avoided."

The injuries prevented the employee from working for two months and a subsequent investigation by the HSE found that this was not the first incident of this king to occur at the factory.

Routine disregard for workers' health is worrying and the firm pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and was fined £6,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 costs.