PJ Hegarty & Sons UK Ltd is the latest firm to use an Intelligent Fingerprinting solution to promote positive safety culture across UK building sites – potentially including staff sub-contracted to HS2 project.  The UK arm of construction company PJ Hegarty, has selected a fingerprint sweat technology for employee drug screening. Following ‘rapid expansion’ in the first half of 2022, the building & civil engineering contractor will use Intelligent Fingerprinting’s non-invasive testing approach – where a ‘simple and reliable’ sweat sample is used to screen quickly for very recent use of cannabis, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, with on-site results available in ten minutes.

Contractor Bedford Transmissions Limited has been fined after a man fell from height and was seriously injured at a food factory.  Bedford Transmissions Limited, trading as BT Lerson, had been contracted by Veetee Rice to move and replace machinery within their factory in Rochester. 

A building firm has been fined after putting workers working at height at risk during the refurbishment of a former warehouse building in London and for breaching a Prohibition Notice.  Shiva Ltd, a property investment company, were using a site-made cradle during the renovation of the five-story building on Bermondsey Street in the south-east of the capital.

Two companies and two people have been sentenced after a teenage construction worker was fatally injured while working on a house-build construction site in Lincolnshire.  P & R Plant Hire (Lincolnshire) Limited, D. Brown (Building Contractors) Limited, Brent Woods and Darrell Tripp were all fined following the death of 18-year-old Josh Disdel.

On 23 April 2018, Christopher Barnes – a 69-year-old lorry driver working for Devereux Developments Ltd – delivered doors to a site in Gloucestershire.   After arriving on site, Christopher opened the curtain doors to his trailer and released the load-securing straps. However, some of the straps – which were suspended from the roof of the trailer – were tangled. Christopher’s attempts to free them from ground level were unsuccessful, so he climbed onto the trailer’s cargo bed and then onto the load itself to try again. Unfortunately, he stepped backwards off the load and fell 2.3 metres onto the concrete floor of the yard below. Christopher was taken to hospital but sadly passed away from his injuries the following day.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors have begun a targeted inspection initiative focusing on manufacturing businesses where materials that contain silica are used.  The inspections, which will include brick and tile manufacturers, will check whether employers and workers know the risks involved when dealing with silica and ensure that businesses have control measures in place to protect workers’ respiratory health.

A refrigeration company has been fined £27,000 after a worker sustained significant injuries when he fell from an incomplete gantry.  GEA Refrigeration UK Ltd was replacing a cooler unit located on a gantry 10m above the warehouse floor at an Iceland depot in Swindon on 1 February 2017.

Findings from a new survey suggest noisy offices are lowering productivity and impacting worker health.  A study of office workers shows noise in the workplace is contributing to missed deadlines and negatively affecting employee wellbeing.

Lifting and moving heavy objects on construction sites is harming the health of thousands of brickies and builders to such a degree every aspect of their lives is affected.  Experts at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are warning construction workers are picking up injuries and conditions that can stop them working and leave them struggling to stand, walk, or sit down.

Brewdog has been slapped with an improvement notice from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following three safety breaches.  The beer giant, which operates out of Balmacassie Industrial Estate in Ellon, has until November to meet the watchdog’s requirements.