Scottish Hospitals Required to Publish Infection Rates
It was announced on 12th January 2009 that the Scottish Government was to begin regular monitoring of rates of infection by MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, also referred to as Oxacillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or ORSA) and Clostridium difficile in hospitals. Hospital officials will be required to publish levels of MRSA and C. difficile in their areas every two months. The aim was described as being to introduce a new level of transparency around infection rates. Although MRSA rates in Scotland have fallen since several serious outbreaks in 2008, health boards will now have to report infection rates on a hospital-by-hospital basis and make the results available.
The two hospital-acquired infections can be attributed only to failures in basic hygiene methods and there is no excuse for lack of infection control guidelines and hygiene compliance measures that are properly followed.
The Scottish NHS boards have been told to reduce the rate of the infection in hospitals by at least 30% by 2011.
Largest Plasma Screen Televisions to Go
Oversize and power-hungry, flat screen plasma televisions that consume up to four times as much electricity as CRT (cathode ray tube) screen TVs are to be banned under new EU legislation. There will be a mandatory requirement for energy ratings with minimum standards for televisions. The worst performing equipment will be phased out and the rest clearly labelled for the benefit of potential purchasers.
In the UK there has been a consumer preference over the past five years to buy 32” to 42” flat screen televisions, which burn far more energy than the earlier CRT sets. The largest plasma televisions are responsible for the emission of four times as much carbon dioxide as the biggest CRT, and consume twice as much power as a fridge-freezer. However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that plasma televisions would not be banned completely.
The move follows the withdrawal of the 100W incandescent light bulb, and is part of a drive to slow the rapid growth of electricity consumption in homes by phasing out wasteful devices and introducing more efficient ones.
European Union Pesticide Rules
On 13th January 2009, the European Parliament voted 577 in favour to 61 against to ban some of the agricultural pesticides considered to be the most dangerous to human health. They include substances classed as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction; endocrine-disrupting; persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic; or very persistent and very bioaccumulative. The vote is likely to be endorsed by EU ministers, allowing a list of approved "active substances" to be drawn up, with certain highly toxic chemicals banned unless their effect can be shown to be negligible.
Pesticides already approved will remain available until their ten-year authorisation expires, so there will be no sudden, large-scale withdrawal of products from the market. Most pesticides currently on the market will be valid until at least 2015, giving pesticide manufacturers time to reformulate their products.
Aerial crop-spraying will for the most part be banned, with strict conditions placed on pesticides used near aquatic environments and drinking water supplies. Buffer zones must be set up around water and protected areas along roads and railways.
The changes agreed will make the EU Commission rules primarily a hazard-based, rather than a risk-based approach since they treat products in the categories of whether they are proven or suspected carcinogens, or whether there has been some observation, but no actual evidence, of carcinogenic behaviour. The new rules will determine which substances are too hazardous to be approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The British Government voted in opposition to the proposals on the basis of lobbying by the farming sector and the pesticides industry, their claims being that the changes would cause rising prices and affect UK crop yields. The UK apparently has reservations over the ban on pesticides designed to combat plant diseases associated with wet weather, such as potato blight. In reality the new restrictions will affect only around 4% of the most widely used pesticides, and the economic disadvantages have been greatly exaggerated by vested interests.
New Guide on Water Analysis
The British Standards Institution has published BS 1427:2009, Guide to on-site test methods for the analysis of waters, which describes methods for the analysis of industrial and other waters. The methods can be undertaken outside of a chemical laboratory and used for on-site tests. The guidance is for when the purpose of the testing is to characterise water samples for quality or process control purposes. The test methods are simple procedures for use by a trained analyst or by an individual who has had appropriate training.
The standard is a revised version of BS 1427, contains updates to specific methods since the previous standard and provides guidance on the use of the much wider range of commercial test-kits available.
Ocean Fertilisation Experiment Controversy
An international geoengineering expedition led by the Alfred Wegner Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) of Bremerhaven, Germany, planned to carry out a large-scale experiment in mid-January 2009 to soak up greenhouse gas emissions by artificially fertilising ocean water with iron. The project was called LOHAFEX, taking its name from the Hindi word for iron. Although the expedition was highly controversial it was described as having the scientific backing of the UK, German and Indian Governments, as well as the International Maritime Organisation. The current consensus opinion is that large-scale ocean fertilisation is not scientifically justified.
The AWI expedition sailed from Cape Town in early January on the icebreaker ship “Polarstern”, and intended to dump 20 tonnes of ferrous sulphate into the Southern Ocean in order to trigger a phytoplankton bloom. They had selected a 300-square-kilometre, nutrient-poor patch of the Scotia Sea between Argentina and the Antarctic Peninsula as their target. The theory was that artificially stimulated photosynthetic plankton would take carbon from the atmosphere, incorporate it in their bodies and then deposit it as sediment on the ocean floor when they died, thus sequestering the carbon. The team also intended to monitor the population of Antarctic krill to see if their populations increased at the same time. Krill are small crustaceans that feed on plankton and are an important food source for many marine species.
Such ocean fertilisation experiments have been carried out in the past with mixed results, but they became controversial in 2007 when an American start-up company called Planktos announced that it would dump iron filings off the coast of the Galapagos Islands. The business model of Planktos was to sell carbon credits to companies who would pay it to dump iron in the oceans, counterbalancing their own CO2 emissions. Several authoritative bodies argued that this was tantamount to pollution and could have unforeseen environmental consequences. Planktos eventually cancelled the expedition and the company went into liquidation due to lack of funds.
Following the Planktos affair both the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity recommended that governments restrict ocean fertilisation activities. Thus the new experiment was in clear violation of international law under the Convention on Biological Diversity that was agreed by 191 parties in 2007. AWI denied that the experiment fell under the United Nations moratorium, and claimed it was not in contravention of the IMO London Convention on ocean pollution.
However, on 14th January the German Environment Ministry asked the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, who are the owners of the “Polarstern”, to order the experiment to be suspended and demanded that AWI commission an independent assessment of its environmental safety. In yet another reversal of policy the German Research Minister changed her mind on 27th January and said that the contentious experiment could go ahead.
A recent study published in the journal Nature (R. T. Pollard et al., Nature 457, 577-580 (29 January 2009) | DOI:10.1038/nature07716 457, 577–580) reported on the similar CROZEX experiment of 2004 and 2005 which found that the potential of iron-induced carbon sequestration is far lower than previously estimated.
In the event, the much-criticised LOHAFEX project, in which six tonnes of ferrous sulphate were dumped over a 300 sq km patch of the Southern Ocean, failed to produce the anticipated result. The experiment did indeed stimulate a burst of algal growth, but within two weeks the algae were being eaten by small crustaceans called copepods, which were in turn eaten by amphipods, a larger type of crustacean. Thus the carbon remained in circulation through the food chain rather than being sent to the sea floor. The expedition reported that only an almost negligible amount of CO2 was removed in a carbon flux towards the sea floor.
A flaw in the reasoning on which the expedition was based seems to have been that a lack of iron is not the only factor limiting phytoplankton growth. Earlier experiments had found that diatom populations would bloom in response to feeding with extra iron. However, diatoms have a supporting structure based on silicon, and in the LOHAFEX study area the diatom population could not increase because the waters were depleted in silicic acid.
More Radical Cuts in CO2 Emissions Essential
An influential report by Rajendra K. Pachauri, Director General of the Energy and Resources Institute and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was published in January 2009 by the Worldwatch Institute. See:
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5658
Entitled State of the World 2009: Into A Warming World, the document is based on the findings of the IPCC Fourth Assessment and argues that far more action is necessary before 2050 to prevent catastrophic global climate change. Not enough is being done to control and reduce CO2 emissions and far more radical cuts of around 85% are essential. After 2050, more CO2 must be sequestered from the atmosphere than is put into it by human activities. The report concludes that it is still possible to arrest and manage climate change with renewable technologies and more efficient ways of living.
Even an average rise in temperatures of 2C poses unacceptable risks to natural systems, and global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2020 and decrease drastically until 2050. The report urges long-term planning, global co-operation and innovative solutions, such as improved building design incorporating a variety of efficiency measures.
Lead Exposure Affects the Old as Well as the Young
A research paper by Naila Khalil et al, “Association of Cumulative Lead and Neurocognitive Function in an Occupational Cohort”, was published in the American Psychological Association journal Neuropsychology, 2009, Vol. 23, No. 1, 10–19; DOI:10.1037/a0013757. The study deals with the effect of workplace lead exposure on cognitive problems for workers later in life, and concludes that lead can affect the developing brain in the young and the aging brain can also suffer. For older people a build-up of lead from earlier exposure may be enough to result in greater cognitive problems after the age of 55.
The researchers followed up on a 1982 Lead Occupational Study, which assessed the cognitive abilities of 288 lead-exposed and 181 non-exposed male workers in eastern Pennsylvania, USA. The lead-exposed workers came from three lead battery plants; the unexposed control workers made truck chassis at a nearby factory. The men who built lead batteries were exposed to the metal in the air and through their skin. Other occupations, including semiconductor fabrication, ceramics, welding and soldering and some construction work, may also expose workers. At both points in time, all the workers were given the Pittsburgh Occupational Exposures Test battery, which includes measures of five primary cognitive domains: psychomotor speed, spatial function, executive function, general intelligence, and learning and memory.
In 1982, lead-exposed workers were found to have an average blood lead level of 40 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL), well above what is accepted as normal. Those Pennsylvania workers found to have 25µg/dL or more must by law be taken off the job. In 1982, the unexposed workers had an average blood level of 7.2µg/dL, which is within normal limits.
In 2004, the present study followed up with 83 of the original lead-exposed workers and 51 of the original non-exposed workers. They measured blood lead levels and cumulative lead levels, and re-administered the test battery to assess cognitive performance relative to both measures of lead.
They found that among the lead-exposed workers, men with higher cumulative lead in their bodies had significantly lower cognitive scores. The clearest inverse relationships (when one went up, the other went down) emerged between cumulative lead and spatial ability, learning and memory and overall cognitive score. Although the men no longer worked at the battery plants, their earlier prolonged exposure was enough to matter. The researchers state that previous exposure to lead is particularly detrimental to the aging brain and that specific cognitive domains may be particularly vulnerable.
Health and Safety (Offences) Act
The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008 came into force on 16th January 2009. It amends the
The Act raises the maximum fine which may be imposed in the lower courts to £20,000 for most health and safety offences; makes imprisonment an option for more health and safety offences in both the lower and higher courts; and makes certain offences, which were previously triable only in the lower courts, triable in either the lower or higher courts. Details on the mode of trial and maximum penalties can be seen at:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080020_en_2
There are no new duties placed upon employers and the new legislation seems to be aimed more at the courts. For many offences there was already an unlimited fine, but in 2007 the average fine for a successful prosecution undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive was £12,896, and by a local authority £7,663. The hope is that courts will use their new powers to ensure that fines are more realistic in future and reflect the criminal nature of the offences.
Cancer Risk from Rubber Feedstock
A research paper by Tom Sorahan of the University of Birmingham was published on 21st January 2009 in the BMJ journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reference DOI:10.1136/oem.2008.041400. It deals with the cancer risks to chemical production workers exposed to 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT). MBT is a substance used to manufacture rubber and the study found that it may be a possible cause of cancer in workers who are regularly exposed to it.
The research was based on a study of workers exposed to the substance at the Ruabon Works of Flexsys Rubber Chemicals Ltd in Cefn Mawr, Wrexham. It revealed that employees at the Flexsys plant who had come into contact with MBT were twice as likely to die from large intestine and bladder cancers. The research involved an analysis of the death rates of employees who had worked at the plant for at least six months between 1955 and 1984 and who were diagnosed with cancer between 1971 and 2005. The resulting figures were that 363 male production workers out of 2,160 employees were exposed to MBT, and 222 of those workers later died. When compared with national statistics for death rates, the results show that the workers are twice as likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer and four times as likely to be diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
Flexsys said in a statement that they were reviewing the study in order to identify what, if any, actions should be taken in terms of further investigation.
UK Biofuels Research Centre
On 27th January 2009, the Science Minister announced the establishment of the Sustainable Bioenergy Centre by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The new organisation is a £27 million project designed to act as a hub for biofuels research, although it will be based in six universities including Cambridge, York and Nottingham. The institute has been tasked with developing economically competitive and environmentally sound alternatives to fossil fuels.
According to Government figures, the transport sector accounts for around 25% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, and while other sectors have curtailed or reduced overall emissions, CO2 from transport has continued to rise. In an attempt to redress the situation the Government introduced the "Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation" in April 2008, which required 2.5% of all the fuel sold at petrol stations to consist of biofuels. This was originally intended to increase to 5% by 2010, but the target was abandoned after the Government accepted a recommendation by the Gallagher Review to delay until at least 2013.
Earthquake Risk to Nuclear Plant Downgraded
The UK is not located on an area of the Earth's crust which is seismically active to the extent that earthquake risk is a major factor in structural design, as it is in Japan. The most severe earthquake in recent times happened on 7th June 1931 under the North Sea, around 75 miles north-east of Great Yarmouth; that event had a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale. In April 2007, there was an earthquake in Kent with a magnitude of 4.3. The areas of highest seismic risk are thought to be along the west of England, Scotland and Wales. In the UK, there has been a long-standing ban on the location of nuclear power stations in proximity to towns, certain military facilities, and in areas believed to be more prone to earthquakes.
The Government has run out of sites for its proposed new generation of nuclear power stations, most of which will be built adjacent to existing facilities. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has already proposed sites at Sellafield in Cumbria, Bradwell in Essex, Oldbury in Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey.
In January 2009, the Government removed the earthquake criterion (but not the other restrictions), claiming that some seismic risk should not automatically prevent the consideration of a new site. The argument presented was that local seismic conditions would be considered at the development consent stage when the relevant information about design approach and precise location is known. That information would not necessarily be available at the strategic stage, as in some cases to obtain it would require extensive, site-specific investigations. The Government has also decided that concerns over flood risk and the impact of power stations on environmentally protected areas do not automatically rule out the proposal of a new site.
Pre-Registered Substances under EU-REACH
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) was required under Article 28(4) of the REACH Regulation to publish by 1st January 2009 a list of substances that were pre-registered between 1st June 2008 and the pre-registration deadline of 1st December 2008. The list of pre-registered substances is available online in two different formats at:
http://apps.echa.europa.eu/preregistered/pre-registered-sub.aspx
The list contains around 143,000 substances that were pre-registered by 65,000 companies between 1st June and 1st December 2008.
Chemical Industry Challenge to REACH
Lake Chemicals and Minerals Limited of the UK, SPCM of France, CH Erbslöh KG of Germany and Hercules Inc. of the USA issued proceedings in 2007 against the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to force a referral by the UK High Court to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for preliminary rulings relating to REACH. The four chemical companies sought an annulment of some of the requirements of the Regulation.
On 27th January 2009, the ECJ considered one point referred to it by the High Court dealing with a request that certain highly toxic monomers be excluded from the REACH registration requirements on the grounds that the requirement is “irrational, discriminatory or disproportionate”. The monomers include the notorious workplace carcinogen vinyl chloride, as well as styrene, acrylamide and butadiene. Industrial lobbying has already succeeded in having polymers excluded from the REACH registration requirement.
The counter-argument is that the chemical industry has created a spurious distinction in regard to “reacted monomers”, claiming they should not be covered, despite their known toxicity. They define “reacted” monomers as those which have formed covalent bonds with a sequence of other molecules to form a polymer and thus no longer have the chemical structure of the individual substances with toxic properties. It is suggested that this concept is irrelevant in terms of exposure risk, because production workers still have to work with the original monomers.
In an opinion issued in March 2009, the ECJ said there was no evidence that the requirement to register reacted monomers breached the principles of legal certainty, proportionality and non-discrimination.
New Gas Safety Register
The Health and Safety Executive announced changes to the gas installer registration scheme in Great Britain last year. The scheme previously operated by CORGI was replaced on 1st April 2009 by the new Gas Safe Register, operated by Capita. The Gas Safe Register is the only gas installer registration scheme approved by the HSE from 1st April under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. All gas installers who wish to undertake domestic gas work in Great Britain from 1st April will have to be registered with this scheme in order to be able to carry out any lawful work on gas fittings, including gas appliances.
The Gas Safe Register will maintain an up-to-date register of gas installers who are qualified to install or repair gas fittings and appliances. It will check the competence of gas installers, inspect their work and deal with complaints about unsafe gas work. The operation of the Gas Safe Register will be overseen by the HSE as the regulator with responsibility for gas safety.
From 1st April 2009, in order to ensure that gas installers are lawfully able to carry out the gas work, domestic users of gas should ask for a Gas Safe Registered Engineer and not any other. The CORGI register will no longer count for those purposes.
The Gas Safe Register opened on 19th January 2009 for currently registered gas installers to register in advance with the new scheme by telephone or through the website at:
http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk
French Warship Towed to Hartlepool for Scrapping
The 27,000-tonne aircraft carrier “Le Clemenceau”, built in 1955 and once the flagship of the French navy, has been for the past ten years a contaminated hulk awaiting ship-breaking. It has been taken to and turned away from yards in Spain, Turkey, Greece and India because of the danger of releasing 700 tonnes of asbestos and toxic chemicals onboard the vessel. Since May 2006 it had been kept in the port of Brest in northern France after being rejected by the Indian Supreme Court.
In early February 2009, the “Le Clemenceau” was towed to Hartlepool on Teesside for scrapping, after the Health and Safety Executive granted a licence to import asbestos and the Environment Agency (EA) granted permission for the vessel to be broken up. The EA also gave approval to the controversial scrapping and recycling of four World War II American warships that have been moored there since 2003, alongside unwanted oil rig platforms.
The approval followed resolution of a series of legal challenges to prevent the ship-breaker Able UK from dismantling the ships and removing their content of asbestos, mercury and PCBs in the world’s largest sealed dry dock. The company had to satisfy the EA and the HSE that its structural facilities and management systems would prevent the release of harmful substances to water or air.
The Able Graythorp dry dock, known as the Teesside Reclamation and Recycling Centre (TERRC), is said to have the capacity to recycle up to 30 ships a year. The company also hopes to cater for the disposal of some of the 200 remaining single-hulled oil tankers still afloat, but which will become illegal by 2015.
World’s Largest Clean Coal Plant for Yorkshire
What remains of the British coal industry is now called Powerfuel, and the company has plans to build a 900 MW, low emissions, coal-fuelled power plant in Yorkshire, fed by the Hatfield Colliery, which was reopened in 2007. The proposed plant will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology (utilising the pre-combustion capture method with offshore sequestration), but in 2007 the Government disqualified it from a funding competition and effectively froze development.
At the end of January 2009, the Powerfuel project was revived by interest from the European Union, when the EU said it was considering a €250 million cash injection under a €5 billion economic recovery package. The EU criteria differ from those of the Government in that they support projects that can demonstrate technology sufficiently mature to be initiated this year.
New Standards for Noise and Vibration
The British Standards Institution has announced the publication of two new British Standards:
- BS 5228-1:2009, Code of practice for noise and vibration control on construction and open sites. Noise. This standard gives recommendations for basic methods of noise control as they apply to work activities and operations that generate significant noise levels; it includes industry-specific guidance.
- BS 5228-2:2009, Code of practice for noise and vibration control on construction and open sites. Vibration. The standard covers basic methods of vibration control on construction sites where work activities/operations generate significant vibration levels; it also includes industry-specific guidance.
Safety in Hotels, Restaurants and Catering
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has published online a new report entitled Protecting Workers in Hotels, Restaurants and Catering. It focuses on the management of the risks faced by workers in the hotels, restaurants and catering sector, and how to prevent the causes of accidents and ill-health. It illustrates examples of good practice in dealing with workplace risks, as well as giving an overview of policy in the area, and describing changes that are taking place in the sector.
The sector covers a wide range of different businesses including hotels, bars and restaurants, contract caterers in various industrial and commercial premises, fast-food takeaways, cafes and bistros. It plays an important role as a job creator in the service sector and in the general economy of many EU member states, employing more than 7.8 million people. The report can be downloaded from:
http://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/reports/TE7007132ENC_horeca
Also available from EU-OSHA is a smaller factsheet on the same topic, downloadable from:
http://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/factsheets/79/view
Safety Code for Directors Not Well Known
In October 2007, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Institute of Directors (IoD) published a voluntary safety code for company directors, INDG417, Leading Health and Safety at Work, but it has not so far been successful according to a survey commissioned by the HSE and undertaken by the organisation Databuild. The survey revealed that three quarters of business leaders were unaware of the existence of the code, and only 33% of construction companies knew of it.
The survey excluded the 130,000 construction companies with fewer than five employees that make up around half of the entire construction workforce. Of the 1,600 companies with more than five employees surveyed, only 25% of the directors knew of the HSE/IoD directors' duties code.
Partial information was published in an HSE press release but further details were released online by the trade union UCATT. In response the manufacturing employers’ organisation EEF suggested that, in contrast to the construction industry, the directors of manufacturing companies were taking their responsibilities more seriously. They argued that there was no need for introducing new legal duties on company directors, as advocated by UCATT and the TUC.
INDG417 can be accessed at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf
Heathrow Airport Expansion and Air Pollution
Atmospheric emissions of PM10 particles around Heathrow Airport already exceed European safe limits and London is ranked as one of the worst cities in Europe in terms of air pollution, but this has not discouraged the Department for Transport (DfT) from proposing to expand capacity at Heathrow. The Government’s environmental case for building a third runway and sixth terminal relies on meeting EU targets by the use of low emissions aircraft burning cleaner fuels.
On 4th February 2009, the House of Commons Library published its Research Paper 09/11, Expansion of Heathrow Airport. The House of Commons Library researchers provide MPs with independent and impartial analyses of topical subjects. In the present paper they criticise the underlying rationale of the Government’s case for Heathrow expansion and question its key assumptions. Their report points out that the low emissions aircraft envisaged by the Government do not exist at present, nor are they even in the design stage, and for the foreseeable future kerosene will remain the only viable option as an aircraft fuel. Thus the DfT assertion that Heathrow pollution can be lowered to meet EU targets by 2015 is unlikely to become a reality.
The report also questions the figure of £8.2 billion which the DfT claims the extra runway will generate for the UK economy, concluding that the Government’s decision to approve a third runway at Heathrow does not consider alternative projects.
The report can be accessed at:
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2009/rp09-011.pdf
Employers’ Duty to Reduce Risks
A Court of Appeal judgment of 15th December 2008 confirmed that employers must both undertake risk assessments and ensure that they take the necessary action to reduce risks. The case was Egan v. Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust, before Lord Justice Sedley, Lord Justice Keene and Lady Justice Smith. The court ruled that the burden was on the employer to prove that it had taken appropriate steps to reduce any risk to the lowest reasonably practicable level.
The judgment concerned a hospital employee who was injured using a mechanical hoist to move a patient, and overturned a decision at Salford County Court in April 2008 denying the employee damages. The nurse contended that Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trust had failed in its duties under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR) and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. She was injured when the wheels of a mechanical hoist she had been using to transport a disabled patient into a bath jammed, causing the hoist to stop suddenly.
The Appeal Court found that the lower court had failed to take proper account of the duty on employers under Regulation 4(1)(b)(ii) of MHOR to reduce risk to the lowest level reasonably practicable, that requirement being separate from and additional to the requirement under Regulation 4(1)(b)(i) to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. The employer had not carried out a risk assessment and was in breach of its duty to reduce the risk; thus it was primarily liable for the injury and should pay damages.
However, on the matter of contributory negligence the Appeal Court found that if either party to the incident had taken proper care, the accident would probably have been avoided. Accordingly, the parties should share responsibility equally, so that the defendant was liable to the claimant in 50% of the damages.
Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures
The European Commission published a formal draft Regulation on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (based on the UN Globally Harmonised System), on 27th June 2007. The Regulation (known as the ‘CLP’ Regulation) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 31st December 2008 and came into force on 20th January 2009. The Regulation is directly acting in all EU member states and requires no national transposition.
The requirements of the Regulation for classification, labelling and packaging do not become mandatory until 1st December 2010 for substances and 1st June 2015 for mixtures. This transitional period is intended to help suppliers and users of chemicals change from the current EU classification and labelling system to the new GHS-based system.
The necessary adjustments to the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations (CHIP) to introduce enforcement provisions for the CLP Regulation were described in HSE Consultative Document CD220 (December 2008) on the proposed CHIP 4 Regulations. The CHIP 4 Regulations came into force on 6th April 2009.
The 1st ATP (Adaptation to Technical Progress) to the CLP Regulation will introduce into the Regulation the amendments made to the EU harmonised list of substance classifications by the 30th and 31st ATPs to the Dangerous Substances Directive (67/548/EEC). The 1st ATP is expected to be adopted in June 2009.
Pests, Pathogens and Declining Bees
Bees are responsible for the pollination of around 30% of all food crops grown in the UK. They are also responsible for such imported products as coffee, almonds and oranges. Pollination carried out by bees is worth £200 million to British agriculture each year, and the total contribution by bees to the economy, including profits made from the sales of food, is up to £1 billion.
It is well known that all insect populations fluctuate considerably from year to year, but the economic importance of bees has brought more emphasis to their sudden recent decline. Sudden falls in honey bee numbers are recorded in the past, but a decline in the last few years has taken place in Europe and the USA, where the phenomenon has been termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In its scientific sense the CCD syndrome is thought to be a symptom of virus attack, including one called IAPV, but there is no IAPV or CCD in the UK although bees are still dying. Last year the UK lost a third of its honey bees (more than 80% of the honey sold in the UK is now imported) and in America 50% of bee colonies were destroyed. In Europe heavy losses have been reported from Spain, Poland, Greece, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal. The unexplained bee deaths have since spread to India and China.
Records of colony numbers and disease incidence in the UK cover 100 years. Major losses occurred in the early 20th century and were attributed to the tracheal mite Acarapis woodi. Later research suggested that the chronic paralysis virus was more likely to have been responsible. The parasitic mite Varroa destructor, which originated in Siberia, arrived in the UK in 1992 and caused widespread losses. They were reduced with careful management by beekeepers. In the last five years losses have increased again, and according to the IACR-Rothamsted Varroa Project they are almost certainly due to the spread of acaricide-resistant Varroa destructor.
It has also been suggested that the vulnerability of honey bees to stresses could be the result of selective breeding affecting the bees' genetic make-up. By selection for low aggression and high honey production, the honey bees have lost other characteristics advantageous to their survival.
Sellafield Mox Plant Closure
In February 2009, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) implied in a technical review that it was considering the closure of the Mox (mixed oxide) production plant at Sellafield. The Sellafield Mox Plant (SMP) was built ten years ago at a cost of £470 million and has never functioned properly according to its design purpose, that of manufacturing new fuel from recycled plutonium and uranium recovered from used nuclear fuel by the nearby thermal oxide reprocessing plant (Thorp), which also has a troubled operational history.
In 2008, the Energy Minister admitted in response to a parliamentary question that the SMP had managed to reprocess only 2.6 tonnes of fuel per year between 2002 and 2007; and between 1998 and 2002 the plant produced annual figures respectively of 2.3 tonnes, 0.3 tonnes, 0 tonnes and 0 tonnes. The poor performance was attributed to a string of technical difficulties.
The closure of the SMP would make it more likely that a 100-tonne stockpile of highly radioactive plutonium will be stored until the wider Sellafield site in Cumbria is shut down, rather than turned into new fuel.
Nuclear Submarines Collide
On 16th February 2009, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Royal Navy nuclear submarine “HMS Vanguard” carrying Trident nuclear missiles was involved in a collision with the French nuclear submarine “Le Triomphant” in the middle of the Atlantic. The incident took place in heavy seas on 5th February and both vessels were badly damaged.
“HMS Vanguard” had to be towed back to its home base at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde. “Le Triomphant” managed to return to its base at L'Ile Longue, near Brest, with a frigate escort but under its own power. Between them the two submarines were carrying 240 personnel and more than 30 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads; both are powered by nuclear reactors. The submarines are equipped with advanced sonar detection systems and anti-sonar devices. No injuries were reported and the UK and French Governments insisted there was no danger of radiation leakage.
It had been thought that because of the vastness of the oceans a potentially dangerous collision in the Atlantic was an improbable event (around one incident per 50,000 years). However, a random motion probability model is inappropriate because, although secret, the routes and movements of such vessels are not random. They are all likely to be directed towards the same trouble spots around the world and therefore confined to the same relatively small patrol areas. This scenario knocks several zeros off the expected frequency of collision calculation. Existing assumptions may have to be discarded and future behaviour changed.
North Sea Helicopter Crash
A Bond Helicopters Super Puma Bond crew-change helicopter with 16 passengers and two crew on board came down in the North Sea late on 17th February 2009. The pilot managed to keep the aircraft upright when it hit the sea, although it then rolled over. All 18 people were rescued alive. The incident took place 125 miles east of Aberdeen, 500 metres away from a BP ETAP production platform. Witnesses claimed that the tail boom broke off.
The incident is being investigated by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch and local agencies. It is unusual for a helicopter to ditch in such circumstances without fatalities.
Confined Spaces Approved Code of Practice
The Health and Safety Executive published a revised and updated version of the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) on entry into confined spaces on 17th February 2009. The new publication offers guidance on the duties of employers under the Confined Spaces Regulations and provides reference points to all industrial sectors that deal with confined spaces.
It covers entry to sewers, grain silos, storage tanks and slurry pits, brewery cellars and the holds of ships by shore workers; but the regulations do not apply offshore.
Since the ACoP and guidance was written, Regulations 1(2) and 2(c) have been amended by the Diving at Work Regulations 1997.
HSE Report on Wind Energy
The Health and Safety Executive’s Horizon Scanning Short Reports do not necessarily reflect HSE policy or guidance, but do provide a brief guide to current topics. The latest document deals with wind energy and outlines the health and safety implications of the increasing use of this form of renewable energy in the UK.
Given the large expansion planned in wind turbine construction, it can be expected that the potential for accidents will increase and that some will involve workers and the public. The report concludes that the HSE will have to consider the resource implications of inspecting and regulating for this large increase; and whether to put more resources into looking at the small/micro end of wind generation (within its responsibilities), which is increasing in the UK. The HSE would have to work with other agencies, countries and wind turbine suppliers on the safe design and integrity of wind turbines; and consider producing an online guidance document on wind energy.
The report is available at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/horizons/wind-energy.pdf
Atmospheric Carbon Accelerates
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on 25th February 2009 that global emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere increased at a slightly accelerating rate in 2008. Levels of carbon dioxide last year reached a global average of 384.9 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere, up 2.2 ppm on 2007, compared with a previous annual increase of 1.8 ppm. The new data dampened hopes that the worldwide slowdown in industrial output, which started at the end of 2008, will temporarily deflect the rate of climatic deterioration. Some analysts had hoped that recession would create a breathing space to reverse the impact of climate change.
NOAA concluded that it would take a large drop in carbon emissions to have any impact, and it is clear from the data that this has not yet happened. Natural processes require more than a few percentage points of input fall before any detectable change occurs in the atmosphere. The recession in the developed nations means that greenhouse gas emissions will fall by an estimated 2% in 2009, although the figure may fall further if the global economy enters a wider slump or depression. However, emissions are expected to continue to rise in China, now the world's biggest carbon emitter. NOAA also said there is some evidence that the carbon sink in the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean has been saturated and is no longer absorbing the gas.
Atmospheric carbon levels of CO2 at 385 ppm are already approaching the long-term target level that the world must stay below if there is to be any chance of keeping the average global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius.
Company Fined for Radioactive Waste Leak
In a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency, the nuclear operator Magnox Electric Ltd (formerly Nuclear Electric plc) was found guilty on 6th February 2009 of three offences under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993. It was alleged that the company failed to carry out any inspections of a holding tank sump located in the decontamination bay at the former Bradwell Nuclear Power Station in Southminster, Essex. Magnox was fined £250,000, with £150,000 costs, for failing to notice that the vessel had been leaking liquid radioactive waste for 14 years.
The company was also sentenced on two further counts under the Act, to which it had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing. Those offences concerned its failure to maintain the tank between 1st January 1993 and 18th December 2002, and from 18th December 2002 to 4th February 2004, when the leak was detected. Staff working to clear sludge from the sump discovered the leak, prior to which no inspection had been carried out and no tests had been undertaken to check its integrity, although it had originally been built in 1976.
The company maintained that all the contamination took place between 1988 and 1990, but the Environment Agency concluded that scum marks on the wall of the sump indicated that leakage occurred over many years.
Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2009
The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations 2009 came into force on 1st March 2009. These Regulations apply to England only; separate Regulations will be produced for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and are expected to come into force later this year. See:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/uksi_20090153_en_1
In brief, the operator of certain activities which involve an imminent risk of environmental damage must take steps to prevent it. If damage has occurred and is or is likely to be caused, then the operator must prevent further damage. Where damage has occurred, the relevant enforcing authority must assess the damage, identify whether it is environmental damage, decide upon remedial measures and serve a remediation notice on the responsible operator specifying what remediation is required. Environmental damage as described in the Regulations means damage to protected species or natural habitats, or a Site of Special Scientific Interest; surface water or groundwater; or land.
The senior enforcing agency for the Regulations is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The Regulations provide for actions that local authorities (LAs) will have to carry out should certain pollution incidents occur. Responsibilities are also given to the Environment Agency and Natural England and the Marine and Fisheries Agency. LAs will be concerned primarily with contaminated land issues, as well as initial actions that have to be taken regarding pollution from sites permitted or registered by councils under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 (A2 sites).
There are exemptions in relation to environmental damage caused by an incident which falls within the scope of specified international conventions on oil pollution.
The penalties for an offence under the Regulations are a fine of up to £5,000 in a Magistrates’ Court and/or up to three months’ imprisonment, or an unlimited fine and/or up to two years’ imprisonment in a Crown Court.
Substandard High-Visibility Clothing
Following a report in Health and Safety Bulletin on substandard high-visibility clothing being offered for sale, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) announced that it was funding an investigation and bringing the problem to the attention of local Trading Standards Authorities. The supply and standards issue is the responsibility of BERR, the Health and Safety Executive’s enforcement activity being limited to whether or not workers wear high-visibility personal protective equipment.
A range of high-visibility garments were bought and tested by the Reflective Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (REMA) during 2007 and 2008 in a dozen local authority jurisdictions in England, including Essex, Hertfordshire, West Yorkshire and Lancashire. REMA found substandard garments on sale in two of the UK's largest supermarket chains, as well as in a car-accessory chain and two multi-chain discount stores. Some of the garments tested were almost useless in making the wearer visible at night. The reflective tape on one garment measured only 4 candelas, about the same as a sheet of toilet paper, compared with the 330 candelas specified by EN 471, the European standard on high-visibility clothing for professional use. The garments were all labelled correctly, despite being substandard in quality.
REMA suspects that the problem of failure to comply with EN 471 is widespread. At present the only guide available to an end-user is the price - if it is cheap then it is likely to be rubbish.
Nanomaterials under the Regulatory Microscope
Concerns over the lack of knowledge-based regulation and control of nanomaterials are surfacing in Europe. Thomas Swan and Co. is a small specialist chemical company based in County Durham, UK, and a manufacturer of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The company has pre-registered its product under REACH (the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation, which came into force on 1st June 2007) with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA, the EU chemical watchdog). The company argues that CNTs are completely different allotropes, or structural configurations, from other forms of carbon. Although they possess a surface similar to that of graphite, their properties are so dissimilar that they are different substances and should not be placed in the same category as bulk carbon or graphite. The company has requested nanospecific testing be undertaken on carbon nanotubes under REACH.
The company is concerned because it wants to increase its production capacity to a commercial level, but does not know where it stands in terms of hazards and toxicity exposure. At present there is not enough data available on the safety risks of CNTs, particularly in the area of chronic exposure.
This application is thought likely to generate increased pressure for the stricter health and environmental risk regulation of nanotechnology in the European Union. In February 2009, the European Parliament drafted a report on the regulatory aspects of nanomaterials, which it suspects may present potentially significant new risks.
The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a new online publication offering interim guidance for medical screening and hazard surveillance for workers potentially exposed to engineered nanoparticles at NIOSH 2009-116.
Airliner Engine Safety Alert
Following three recent incidents involving a sudden power loss in long-haul airliners, the American company Boeing issued a safety alert in late February 2009, warning the operators of 220 commercial aircraft that the heat exchanger in the Rolls Royce Trent engine could be inadequate and recommending precautionary measures to pilots of the Boeing 777 airliner.
The Rolls Royce Trent jet engine is designed and manufactured in Derby, UK, and is widely used in aircraft, including those operated by British Airways. The problem seems to lie with a build-up of ice at very low temperatures that starves the engine of fuel, leading to sudden power loss. The incidents in 2008 all followed flights in which aircraft had encountered unusually cold cruising conditions. Ice starvation in the fuel feed system (the aluminium tubes that feed fuel from the tanks to the wing-mounted engines) should be prevented by a heat exchanger. Boeing advised that until the Trent engine heat exchanger has been modified, pilots of 777s should reduce flying time at maximum cruise altitude and increase engine power to full for ten seconds before descending. The modified heat exchangers are unlikely to be certified for retrofitting until the third quarter of 2009.
Boeing 777s powered by General Electric and Pratt and Whitney engines are unaffected by the safety alert.
Reliance on Coal Forces a Rethink on Emissions
The UK faces a potentially disastrous energy gap in the near future as most of its ageing coal-fired power plant must be shut down under European Union legislation designed to control acid rain and air pollution. The same legislation also applies to coal-fired plant in Poland, Spain, France, Romania and the Czech Republic.
The EU adopted laws in 2001 aimed at curbing industrial plant emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. European power stations are obliged to retrofit equipment to remove these substances, but older plants can opt out provided they close after 20,000 hours of running time or by 2015. The problem in the UK is that its nuclear plant is also at the end of its practical working life and no new replacement nuclear plant is even on the drawing board. The forced closure of coal-burning plants will inevitably create severe energy shortages around 2015. Britain has opted out 13 plants, totalling around 34.3 thermal gigawatts of capacity, the highest level in Europe and around 15% of total UK capacity. Poland has opted out 32% of its capacity; Romania has opted out 22%, Spain 10%, and France 5%.
At the end of February 2009, controversial proposals were put before the EU to grant life extensions to the year 2020 for failing coal plants, provided they agree to scale back their operating hours. According to EU estimates, if its existing air quality laws are fully implemented they could prevent 13,000 premature deaths a year; those deaths would not be prevented if a new and laxer Industrial Emissions Directive were devised.
Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 as Amended
The Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 obliges employers to insure against their liability for personal injury to their employees. The relevant Regulations are the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998, the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations 2004, and the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) (Amendment) Regulations 2008.
The Act has been qualified many times by Exemption and Amendment Regulations. It was reviewed in 1995 and related legislation carried out, resulting in the 1998 Regulations, which, with the exception of certain provisions relating to offshore installations, consolidated all the existing ELCI Regulations and came into force on 1st January 1999. A further review resulted in the 2004 Amendment Regulations which came into force on 28th February 2005. A Department for Work and Pensions consultation in September 2007 on proposed regulatory changes to Regulations 4 and 5 of the 1998 Regulations produced the 2008 Amendment Regulations which came into force on 1st October 2008.
The Health and Safety Executive has published online the revised version of ELCI guidance for inspectors under the Freedom of Information Act at:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/fod/oc/001-099/1_8.htm
Revised Petrochemical Standards
The British Standards Institution has published:
- BS EN ISO 25457:2008, Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries. Flare details for general refinery and petrochemical service. This document specifies requirements and provides guidance on flares and related components used in the petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries.
- BS EN ISO 23251:2007 + Amendment 1:2008, Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries. Pressure-relieving and depressuring systems. This is an international standard specifying requirements and giving guidelines for examining the principal causes of overpressure. It also determines individual relieving rates and selecting and designing disposal systems.
World Cancer Report 2008
The International Agency for Research on Cancer published its World Cancer Report 2008 in late February 2009. The report provides a comprehensive overview of cancer patterns and trends, diagnosis, causes and prevention, and outlines a growing public health crisis. It argues that too little attention is being paid to potential occupational and environmental risks. There is a potential cancer burden from exposure to hundreds of probable and possible human carcinogens that have been identified, and from thousands of new chemicals which have not been tested for their cancer potential. Little is known about risks from combinations of exposures at levels found in the environment, or from exposures during critical time windows of development or in susceptible populations. The nature of exposures in the working and wider environment is seldom simple and cancers may have multiple causes, so that environmental factors may contribute to cancers attributed to occupational or lifestyle factors (such as interactions between radon gas exposure in buildings, smoking, and asbestos).
The report concludes that the global burden of cancer doubled between 1970 and 2000. In 2008, it is estimated that there were over 12 million new cases of cancer diagnosed, seven million deaths from cancer and 25 million persons alive with cancer within five years of diagnosis. The continued growth and ageing of the world’s population has immediate consequences on the cancer burden. By 2030, it is estimated that there will be over 26 million incident cases of cancer annually. The greatest impact of this increase in the global cancer burden will fall on low- and medium-resource countries which have very limited health budgets and suffer from a high burden of communicable diseases.
Global Climate Change Trend Worsens
An international congress entitled “Climate Change: Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions” was held at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark from 10th to 12th March 2009. It was organised by the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU). Session abstracts are accessible at:
http://www.iop.org/EJ/volume/1755-1315/6
The purpose of the conference was to consider the latest research on global warming and the most recent data on sea level rise. The concern was that the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date. The IPCC reports projected a maximum sea level rise this century of 59 cm, but with the caveat that the figures did not include the effect of accelerated melting of glaciers or ice caps. The uncertainty was centred on how the ice sheets react to the effects of a warmer climate and how they interact with the oceans.
New data presented at the congress suggest that the upper range of sea level rise by 2100 could be in the range of about one metre, or possibly more. At the lower end of the spectrum it looks increasingly unlikely that sea level rise will be much less than 50 cm by 2100. There is a clear implication that if the emission of greenhouse gases is not reduced quickly and substantially, even the best case scenario will be catastrophic for low lying coastal regions and many island nations, those areas currently being home to 10% of the human race.
The latest satellite and ground-based observations show that sea levels have continued to rise at more than 3 mm per year since 1993, a rate well above the 20th-century average. (Sea level has risen almost 20 cm since 1880.) The oceans continue to warm and expand, the melting of mountain glaciers has increased and the disappearing ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also contributing to sea level rise.
The second most salient point to emerge from the many research papers submitted to the congress was that it is now almost impossible for the world to achieve the UN target of preventing a global temperature rise exceeding 2C this century. The consensus view was that the average global temperature rise will be 5C or 6C. This exceeds the worst case scenario foreseen by the IPCC.
The Danish Government will hand copies of the congress synthesis report to all participants at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in December 2009 in Copenhagen.
HSE Strategy Criticised
Following the closure of the consultation period on the Health and Safety Executive’s publication, The Health and Safety of Great Britain: Be part of the solution, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) criticised some of the strategic goals contained in the revised HSE national strategy for workplace safety. IOSH complains of a lack of detail and suggests that the proposals do not go far enough, taking only a status quo approach in some areas. IOSH has urged the HSE to adopt more radical thinking as a way of moving health and safety forward in the UK.
IOSH recommends that the HSE goal on investigation and enforcement should be strengthened, and instead of just encouraging strong leadership the regulator should introduce enforceable directors' duties. IOSH comments that the HSE should also concentrate on reducing the incidence rate of ill-health and cut the level of exposure to health hazards, rather than just reducing the number of cases.
IOSH urges the HSE to include the need to share lessons following incidents and to add a new goal to offer clear, Government-funded advice and guidance to small businesses.
The Government-enforced reduction in manpower resources at the HSE was also criticised by IOSH. It believes there should be a phased eventual doubling of front line inspectors, along with a unified system of enforcement, such as combining HSE and local authority inspectors into a single body to help improve quality, consistency and efficacy. Attention was also drawn by RoSPA to the underfunding of the HSE.
Damages (Asbestos-Related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009
People with pleural plaques in their lungs have a significantly higher risk than the general population of developing mesothelioma. In March 2009, the Scottish Parliament passed new legislation, the Damages (Asbestos-Related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009, which enables people in Scotland to claim damages for past exposure to asbestos. The law overturned a controversial House of Lords ruling in November 2007 that damages could not be claimed against a negligent employer for asbestos-induced pleural plaques in England and Wales.
A group of insurance companies, including AXA, Norwich Union, RSA and Zurich, indicated they would press for a judicial review as the new law is likely to cost them in excess of £50 million in court costs and compensation. The Ministry of Defence, owner of the Rosyth Naval Dockyard, and the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which is liable for defunct shipyards, face total costs of around £7 million.
Total Found Liable for Buncefield Incident
On 20th March 2009, the High Court in London ruled that the oil company, Total, as operator of the Buncefield terminal, was liable for damages caused by the explosion in 2005 at the Hertfordshire oil depot. The depot was a joint venture between Total and Chevron, under the name of Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd (HOSL). The ignition of a vapour cloud that formed after the spillage of 300 tonnes of petrol caused an explosion which registered as a ground tremor equivalent to a 2.4 magnitude earthquake and could be heard 125 miles away. The claims arising from the incident totalled more than £750 million. Insurance companies have settled most of the claims, but a court had to decide the question of who was liable to pay them, and any outstanding claims and further legal costs.
The High Court hearing was over a dispute between Total and Chevron as to who was liable for the agreed acts of negligence that led to the spillage and explosion. The two owners blamed each other, but the court found that Total had failed to discharge the burden of establishing that HOSL was responsible for the negligence of a supervisor. All those working at the site had contracts with Total and the terminal manager, who was the most senior member of staff on site, was appointed by Total and line managed by Total. All safety instructions and procedures were developed by Total.
The judge said that although HOSL was the nominated operator of the Buncefield site in some of the agreements between Total and Chevron, it had no employees and its board met for two hours every six months, primarily to receive a report from the terminal manager and to discuss budgetary matters; thus it was incapable of being concerned with day-to-day operations.
The court also found there was a further contributory fault due to the failure by Total head office staff to develop an adequate system for preventing the overfilling of a storage tank. Total was not entitled to recover a contractual indemnity from HOSL or Chevron in respect of all or any part of the claim.
Total announced that it was considering an appeal against the judgment.
Nanotubes Suppress Human Immune Response
A research paper by Eva Herzog, et al, entitled “SWCNT suppress inflammatory mediator responses in human lung epithelium in vitro”, was published in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 2009, Volume 234, Issue 3, pages 378-390, reference DOI:10.1016/j.taap.2008.10.015. A study was carried out to evaluate the inflammatory response of human lung epithelial cells to single-walled carbon nanotube samples (SWCNTs). SWCNTs and other nanomaterials are particles of around one billionth of a metre in size, which gives them properties not found in their larger counterparts. SWCNTs are being investigated for use in electronics, transparent conducting films and building materials in the form of extremely strong fibres. The wider use of such nanoparticles will ultimately lead to increased human and environmental exposure.
The researchers compared the effects from SWCNT exposure to the well-known effects of crocidolite asbestos exposure. They took asbestos as a reference material because SWCNTs and asbestos have similar dimensions and are both fibres of a size that can penetrate and stay buried deep in the lungs. The team looked at how lung cells respond when in contact with the particles, and found that the SWCNTs were more lethal to cells than comparable asbestos samples.
Injured cells normally release chemical distress signals that induce an inflammatory response from the body immune system, including the release of white blood cells and other immune agents to help fight invasion. The study revealed that the normal inflammatory response of two types of lung cell was suppressed after they were exposed to SWCNTs. The immune response was diminished in both healthy cells and those responding to infection. The toxic effect increased when the nanotubes were mixed in a fluid similar to that found lining human lungs. The SWCNTs were more harmful because they moved more easily through the lung liquid than they did through a cell culture solution.
The results add more concern about the safety of SWCNTs, as the workers who make the materials and consumers who use them may be at risk if the nanomaterials are inhaled. If breathed in, the materials may make the immune system less responsive to infections, which could lead to more and longer respiratory diseases in those exposed to the fibrous particles.
New EU Maritime Safety Regulations
The European Parliament has adopted eight new Regulations and Directives that will tighten safety requirements for ships flying a European Union (EU) member state flag or navigating in European waters. The new measures are aimed at protecting European coasts from maritime disasters and improving passenger and crew safety.
There had been strong resistance to the proposals by the European Council, which represents national governments. The new legislation provides for a range of measures, including a stricter regime of inspection and mandatory compliance with international safety standards for ships flying an EU flag; the permanent blacklisting of dangerous ships; stricter insurance requirements for ship-owners and better compensation to passengers in the event of accidents; and the setting up of an independent authority in each member state with the power to launch rescue operations and decide where to take ships in distress.
The EU Commission had been negotiating what has become known as the 'Erika III' package of maritime regulations since November 2005, but only recently secured a consensus with national transport ministers.
Climate Change and Political Failure
International systems that have been put in place to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to set targets have failed to deliver any results and no drastic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions have yet taken place. Humans are releasing 50 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year and the rate is still increasing by 2% to 3% a year. The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme has failed to achieve its stated aims of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the projects funded under the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism, by which companies in developing countries can earn carbon offsets if they implement clean technology on a project-by-project basis, would have been implemented anyway without funding from elsewhere. The carbon emissions market seems likely to disintegrate in the near future.
The crux of the issue is that the use of fossil fuels must be reduced to avoid global climatic disaster. Unfortunately, governments have made worthy statements of policy and done nothing other than place their faith in systems that do not work. No effective action has been taken, mainly because of political inertia; no politician wants to impose a significant cost or inconvenience on people whom he wants to vote for him at the next election. For related reasons, no large company is going to commit funding to energy conservation projects unless a similar financial burden is placed on its competitors. Instead, politicians have put their faith in trading pieces of paper, and in small-scale tinkering such as wind farms. They have also allowed their thinking to be influenced by their daily experience of weather, which might suggest the world is not warming. But global climate and local weather are two distinct phenomena.
The worst-case scenarios on climate change envisaged by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) two years ago are already being realised, and it is probable that the maximum tolerable target temperature rise of 2C at the end of this century will in fact be passed before 2050, according to the findings of the Copenhagen Climate Congress. There is also an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climate shifts as a slow rise in temperature reaches the tipping point for major events, such as the release of seabed and permafrost methane. Such tipping points in the Earth’s dynamics would not be controllable and would accelerate the effects of warming.
The Amazon rainforest, an important carbon sink on land, is (according to a UK Meteorological Office study) likely to lose 75% of its tree cover if the average global temperature rises by 3C. Around 40% of human CO2 emissions are absorbed and sequestered by the oceans, but several of these ocean sinks have become saturated and have stopped absorbing. The oceans are acidifying, threatening coral reefs, marine animals with carbonate shells, and fish (which require alkaline water in order to breed). Oceanic dead zones have already appeared and are growing and increasing in number.
The Climate Congress intended its bleak conclusions to have the effect of depriving politicians of any excuse for doing nothing and continuing with business as usual, for within two generations that would lead to billions of people being forced to migrate and compete for declining resources of food and water, inevitably sparking violent conflict. The information presented at the Congress will form the basis of a 30-page document to be published in early June 2009. In December 2009, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will assemble in Copenhagen to work out a viable successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
In a paper by J. A. Lowe, et al, published in March 2009 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, reference doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/1/014012, the writers conclude that if carbon emissions peak by 2015 and are decreased by 3% per year thereafter, there is a 55% chance of exceeding a 2C rise in global average temperatures, and a one in three chance that the world will still be more than 2C warmer in 100 years’ time. An emissions peak in 2015 could be achieved by aiming for an 80% decrease in CO2 emissions by 2050, starting now.
Climate Tipping Points
A climate tipping point is defined as a drastic and irreversible shift that has a long lasting effect on the global atmosphere/ocean system. Examples might include the thawing and disappearance of the Greenland ice sheets, the death of the Amazon rainforest, a slowdown of the Atlantic Gulf Stream thermohaline circulation that warms Western Europe, and a constant El Niño warming in the Pacific.
In the past such scenarios were dismissed as highly unlikely or scaremongering, but recent research based on computer modelling has suggested that long-term warming will indeed trigger radical changes, such as the disintegration of the ice sheet in West Antarctica, which would raise world sea levels by around five metres. A thaw in Greenland (raising sea level by seven metres) and dieback in the Amazon (the Pacific El-Niño phenomenon causes drought in the Amazon region) is more than 50% likely by the year 2200 in scenarios of strong global warming, according to a survey published in the American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 March 2009, reference doi:10.1073/pnas.0809117106. In a paper entitled “Imprecise probability assessment of tipping points in the climate system”, Elmar Kriegler and colleagues present results from 43 scientists who looked at global climate scenarios 100 years beyond most forecasts.
The consensus opinion was that there is a one in six chance of triggering at least one tipping point with a moderate temperature rise of between 2 and 4 Celsius (3.60 and 7.20 Fahrenheit) by 2200 from 2000. But with a strong rise of between 4C and 8C by 2200, the chances of surpassing at least one of the five tipping points reviewed rose to 56%. The conclusion was that some of these events are no longer to be considered as low probability.
The conclusion of the recent Copenhagen Climate Congress was that strong global warming greater than 4C by the year 2100 is unavoidable if no action is taken.
Corporate Social Responsibility
In March 2009, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) published its latest report on Corporate Responsibility, defined as how companies address the social, environmental and economic impacts of their operations in order to meet sustainable development goals. The topic is covered by the international standard ISO 26000.
The new report puts forward the Government position that by adopting socially and environmentally responsible behaviour, businesses can make a significant contribution to boosting wealth creation and employment, fostering social justice and protecting the environment.
The report can be downloaded from:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file50312.pdf
Sixteen Die in North Sea Helicopter Crash
On 1st April 2009, a Bond Eurocopter Super Puma AS332 L2 Mk II helicopter carrying 16 people from the BP Miller oil and gas platform came down in the North Sea around 16 miles off Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. The aircraft was on a return flight from the Miller field, which lies 169 miles north-east of Aberdeen, when it crashed in calm and sunny weather conditions. A Mayday message was issued from the helicopter before it hit the water, but rescuers found no survivors.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch recovered wreckage to determine the cause of the crash. They issued an initial report on 10th April in which it was concluded that a catastrophic failure had taken place in the main rotor gearbox. This resulted in the main rotor head becoming detached from the helicopter, leading to the main rotor blades striking the pylon and tail boom, which became detached from the fuselage. The cause of the gearbox failure was not yet apparent.
In February 2009, another Super Puma operated by BP crashed in the North Sea, but on that occasion everyone on board survived. BP announced it was temporarily suspending the use of Super Puma helicopters for offshore passenger operations until such time as the operators confirm compliance with the Eurocopter and the European Aviation Safety Agency guidelines. Bond grounded its Super Puma fleet for two days after the crash. However, there were two more North Sea safety scares involving Super Pumas operated by CHC in the week after the Miller field incident.
The industry body, Oil and Gas UK, announced on 8th April that it was establishing a Helicopter Accident Issues Task Group to address cross-industry concerns. The group would share information and advice about helicopter accidents; review, discuss and if necessary take action by defining possible policies and practices.
Illegal Waste Shipments Increase in the European Union
In March 2009, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published Report No.1/2009 Waste without borders in the EU? Transboundary shipments of waste. It is based on statistical data reported to the European Commission by the member states and presents information on waste shipments within Europe and out of Europe for both Notified Waste (hazardous and problematic waste) as well as for Non-Hazardous Waste.
The routing of electronic waste materials and equipment (the e-waste stream) from the EU to African countries is prohibited, because such disposal has been demonstrated to be damaging the environment and to be the cause of serious health problems for those employed in the disposal process. However, the report reveals that illegal shipments of e-waste are on the increase.
It also finds that the number of reported illegal shipments of hazardous waste from European Union countries to developing countries is growing, and there is a need for better and more detailed reporting of shipments before the problem can be brought under control.
The EEA notes that the number of detected cases brought to its attention probably represents only a fraction of the actual number, and the true scale of illegal shipments is therefore considerable.
Wasteful Water Circulators to be Outlawed in the European Union
In late March 2009, the European Commission decided to take action against wasteful water circulation pumps, which are used to pump water warmed by boilers to radiators in homes and offices. The EU considers that most circulators at present in use consume too much electricity, thereby releasing unnecessary quantities of carbon to the atmosphere. Modern pumps, such as those manufactured by the German company Wilo SE, are more efficient than their predecessors. According to the Commission, most of the 140 million circulators in use today in Europe continue to pump water whether or not it is needed, and up to 20% of the average household energy bill goes to pay for electricity consumed by inefficient circulators.
European energy efficiency requirements will soon make better circulators mandatory by the passing of a new Regulation, forming part of the EC Eco-design campaign, which would permit only very high-efficiency “intelligent” circulators by 2015. These units function only when required and can adjust their speed of operation. The Regulation will also state that standard circulators must be removed from the EU market by 2013.
Before the Eco Directive can be approved there has to be a so-called framework law, a regulatory committee and additional scrutiny by the European Parliament and EU governments. Intense industrial lobbying is expected to delay the introduction of new rules on the energy efficiency of consumer mass-market goods, such as refrigerators. But the EU argues that retooling the way heating systems work would result very quickly in significant energy savings and benefits for society and industry, estimating that the new water circulator Regulation could save the equivalent of the annual energy consumption of Ireland.
Fire Safety on Sub-Surface Railways
The Fire Precautions (Sub-Surface Railway Stations) (England) Regulations 2009 will come into force on 1st October 2009. The Government had originally intended to remove some of the stricter fire safety standards imposed by regulations made under Section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971 (as amended) after the disastrous fire at King’s Cross in 1987, and to replace them with the less specific Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which is based on a more voluntary system of risk assessment.
However, after lobbying by trade unions, the key provisions of the existing standards will now be incorporated into a new regulatory framework. The existing Section 12 regulations and 2005 Fire Safety Order will continue to operate in tandem until the new legislation comes into effect. The RMT union argued successfully that fire safety in underground stations should not be down to the discretion of employers, but requires strict regulation and enforcement.
Statutory Tower Crane Register
Following public disquiet at the number of fatal tower crane collapses in recent years, the Health and Safety Executive is planning a regulatory consultation exercise in summer 2009 to decide on the nature of a proposed statutory tower crane register and how it will operate. It is expected that the register will come into operation by April 2010, and be preceded by a voluntary registration scheme.
The new register is part of a wider package of proposals to improve tower crane safety. Also under consideration are improvements in the competence of those involved in the erection, operation, examination and dismantling of tower cranes. At present there are only general qualifications available for those responsible for the highly skilled work of installing large plant, and more specific qualifications may be introduced.
The HSE is expected to carry out targeted inspection work over the next 12 months to ensure that the construction industry is following guidance published in 2008 aimed at improving safe crane use.
New Health and Safety Law Poster
On 6th April 2009, the Health and Safety Executive published its new simplified version of the Health and Safety Law Poster. An employer has a legal duty under the Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations either to display the HSE-approved poster, or to provide individual workers with the equivalent information in leaflet format. The new poster does not require the addition of contact details of the relevant enforcing authority and the HSE Employment Medical Advisory Service. Nor is the addition of information on employee safety representatives or other health and safety contacts compulsory.
Existing versions of the poster and leaflet can continue to be used until 5th April 2014, as long as they remain readable and the addresses of the enforcing authority and the Employment Medical Advisory Service are up to date. From 6th April 2009, it will only be possible to buy the new law poster and obtain the new pocket cards. The new law poster, pocket cards and other formats can be purchased from HSE Books and other booksellers from 6th April 2009 onwards. The new poster features an individual, serially-numbered hologram and is made from a fully biodegradable form of plastic.
Changes to Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedures
From 6th April 2009, the mandatory dismissal and disciplinary procedures and grievance procedures introduced in 2004 by the Employment Act 2002 were repealed in their entirety. In essence the legal position has reverted to that which applied before October 2004.
The statutory procedures and related provisions are repealed in their entirety, and there is no longer a distinction between the standard and modified procedures. A dismissal is no longer automatically unfair where the employer does not follow the relevant statutory procedure.
Employment tribunals no longer have the power to increase or decrease an award for unfair dismissal by between 10% and 50%. The automatic extension of time limits for bringing tribunal claims no longer applies, but tribunals retain their discretion to increase the time limit for claims where they consider it to be just and equitable to do so (an important point).
An employee does not need to raise a grievance before a tribunal will accept the claim; and an employer does not have to hear grievances from ex-employees, although he may wish to do so.
Decline of Green Energy
The UK Government gave an undertaking to the European Union to meet a target of generating 15% of total national energy demand from renewable resources by 2020. That percentage represents 35% of electricity generation. The consensus opinion among the six largest British energy companies is that the target will be impossible to reach.
Wind energy is expensive to produce and carries a high cost to consumers; the reality is that without State subsidies the wind energy industry could not exist. So far the UK has built 210 operational wind farms, with 41 under construction, 130 granted consent and 268 in planning. The situation in April 2009 was that things are unlikely to proceed any further, as investment in the wind, solar and wave power sector has collapsed by 80% since 2008, from £377 million in Quarter 1 of 2008, to £79 million in the same period this year (figures from New Energy Finance). In comparison, in the first three months of 2009 global investment in renewable energy fell by 53%, from £19.3 billion to £9.1 billion.
The causes of the UK slump are a rapid escalation in the cost of turbines and gearboxes, due to a manufacturing inability to meet global demand; the world banking collapse, depriving projects of lines of finance; the falling value of the pound sterling (the equipment is made overseas); and a declining market price for coal, oil and gas, triggered by global recession.
The oil majors have withdrawn from UK wind energy projects to concentrate on the USA, where state subsidies are much higher. There is a possibility that the world’s largest offshore wind farm, the 341-turbine London Array in the Thames estuary, will be cancelled by its developers as more of its largest backers withdraw.
The trade body, the British Wind Energy Association, has argued that unless additional incentives and grants are introduced to support the industry, changes are made to accelerate fragmented planning decisions, and connection to the national grid is made easier, outstanding projects will be shelved.
EU Blacklist of Unsafe Airlines
Since 2006, the European Union Transport Commission has maintained a blacklist of unsafe airlines. It is updated at least four times a year and is based on deficiencies found during safety checks at European airports by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, on the age of the aircraft inspected and on failures in airline regulation in the registered country of operation. Airlines on the list are barred from operating in the EU, and travellers outside the EU are advised not to travel on such airlines for their own safety.
The list details more than 90 airlines, mainly from African countries including Angola, Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Rwanda. In April 2009, all Benin-based airlines were added to the list.
The ban already covers unsafe carriers from Indonesia and North Korea, but the latest updated version has added six Kazakh airlines, a Thai operator and a fourth Ukrainian airline. They are named as Air Company Kokshetau Kazakhstan, ATMA Airlines, Berkut Air, East Wing, Sayat Air and Starline KZ, One-Two-Go Airlines Thailand and Motor Sich Airlines Ukraine.
New HSE Leptospirosis Leaflet
The Health and Safety Executive has updated its leaflet INDG84 on good practice in regard to leptospirosis risk. It covers both types of infection that can affect workers in the UK, namely Weil’s disease, which is contracted from contact with urine from infected rats; and the Hardjo form of leptospirosis, which is transmitted from cattle to humans.
Farm workers and dairy farmers are particularly at risk as they may be exposed to rats, rat or cattle urine, or fetal fluids from cattle. Other people who have contracted leptospirosis in recent years include vets, meat inspectors, butchers, abattoir and sewer workers. People in contact with canal and river water are also at risk.
The 96 KB PDF document can be downloaded from:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg84.pdf?ebul=hsegen/14-apr-2009&cr=14.
BERR ConDoc on WEEE and RoHS Directives
In April 2009, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) published a Consultation Document on European Commission proposals to recast the Directives on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) aims to minimise the impact of electrical and electronic goods on the environment, by increasing reuse and recycling and reducing the amount of WEEE going to landfill. It seeks to achieve this by making producers responsible for financing the collection, treatment and recovery of waste electrical equipment, and by obliging distributors to allow consumers to return their waste equipment free of charge. The UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2006 were amended by the UK Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2007 which came into force on 1st January 2008 for the second compliance period.
The BERR proposals follow the Commission’s review of both the Directives. On WEEE, a major proposal is to increase the amounts of electrical and electronic waste that are separately collected and recycled, while the proposals on RoHS aim for a higher level of environmental protection by revising the scope of the restrictions and the substances they apply to. The document acknowledges that as a result of a drop in commodity prices, some Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities (AATFs) are experiencing difficulty in moving the derived material (in particular metal and plastics) to a reprocessing facility. This is causing delays in issuing the associated evidence. Another issue is the evidence for metal and plastics derived from Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) for the 2008 compliance period. An interim system has been agreed with Environment Agencies on the issue of evidence from metals derived from WEEE that is destined for reprocessing outside the UK. This interim arrangement is only valid for the first and second compliance periods. BERR will undertake a full review of the evidence process later in the year.
The ConDoc can be accessed at:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file50817.pdf
Public Health in London
Government figures on public health in London released on 15th April 2009 showed an alarming increase in the incidence of preventable diseases associated nowadays with Third World countries. Infection rates in the capital are markedly higher than the national averages. Previously rare highly infectious illnesses such as typhoid, whooping cough and scarlet fever have risen by 166% since 2007. The number of cases of mumps has risen from 125 in 2007 to 393 in 2008, an increase of 314%. Cases of highly contagious whooping cough quadrupled in the five years to 2007, from 63 to 252. Cases of scarlet fever are up 153% since 2005, with 501 infected in London last year. Typhoid, usually associated with poor sanitation and hygiene, has risen steadily since 2004 from 45 to 127 cases per year.
Ozone Layer Recovery and Global Climate Change
The Earth's ozone layer should eventually recover from the unintended destruction brought on by the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and similar ozone-depleting chemicals in the 20th century. However, a recent atmospheric circulation research study by NASA scientists suggests that the ozone layer of the future is unlikely to look much like the past, because greenhouse gases are changing the dynamics of the atmosphere.
Previous studies have shown that while the build-up of greenhouse gases warms the troposphere (the atmospheric layer up to ten kilometres altitude above the surface), it actually cools the upper stratosphere between 30 to 50 kilometres altitude. The effect of cooling is to slow the rate of the chemical reactions that deplete ozone in the upper stratosphere and allow natural ozone production in that region to outpace destruction by CFCs.
It has now been found that the accumulation of greenhouse gases also changes the natural circulation patterns of stratospheric air masses from the tropics to the poles. In the middle latitudes, ozone is likely to "over-recover" by increasing to concentrations higher than they were before the mass production of CFCs. But in the tropics, stratospheric circulation changes could prevent the ozone layer from recovering.
The findings are based on a detailed computer model that includes atmospheric chemical effects, wind changes, and solar radiation changes. The experimental work was part of an on-going international effort organised by the United Nations Environment Programme Scientific Assessment Panel to assess the state of the ozone layer. The results of the analysis on how ozone and the dynamics of the stratosphere are projected to change through to the year 2100 were published in March 2009 in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
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