PHS ordered to pay 150k over shredder explosion

Personnel Hygiene Services (PHS) Ltd has been ordered to pay 150,000 in fines and costs over a major explosion at its waste site in Lancashire that left three workers with serious burns.

The blast happened at the Burscough Industrial Estate, on 12 October 2010, when aerosol cans were put into an industrial shredder. The site is run by the Caerphilly-based firms subsidiary, PHS Wastemanagement.

In a hearing last week Liverpool Crown Court heard that the three employees working near the shredder were caught in a fireball and surrounding buildings had to be evacuated while firefighters dealt with the resulting blaze.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the blast caused extensive damage to the large warehouse that housed the shredder and a thick cloud of smoke developed above the fire which was seen drifting from Burscough towards Southport.

Almost 60 police officers were deployed to oversee road closures and control a cordon around the site.

Investigation

A joint investigation by HSE and the Environment Agency found that the company had allowed around 150 cans containing extremely flammable substances to be put into a large shredder at the site on Tollgate Crescent.

The investigation found that PHS did not have a procedure for checking the contents of boxes of waste materials delivered to the site. Furthermore, the firm failed to ensure that a chemical specialist monitored the waste being put into the shredder to check for flammable substances, HSE said.

And, HSE found a risk assessment carried out in April 2010 to be wholly inadequate after the company wrongly identified the risk of aerosols being added to the shredder as being very unlikely and the consequences of this happening as moderate, meaning no action was taken as a result.

PHS Group Ltd, of Western Industrial Estate, Lon-Y-Llyn, Caerphilly, Wales, was fined 105,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of 45,000 after the pleading guilty to a breach of the Health nd Safety at Work etc Act 1974 on October 3 2013.

Regret

Following the ruling, a PHS spokeswoman said: The health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance and this incident dating back to October 2010 is a matter of great regret. We have cooperated fully with the HSE and Environment Agency at all times during the course of their investigations and have taken steps to prevent any such incident happening in the future, including reviewing and updating our processes and investing in state of the art equipment in all of our relevant sites.

Founded in 1963, PHS Group provides business workplace services in hygiene, specialist waste, compliance and washrooms. Its PHS Wastemanagement subsidiary specialises in the collection, disposal and recycling of healthcare, clinical, dental, pharmaceutical, chemical and hazardous wastes.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE principal inspector Neil Rothwell said: The chemical waste industry has the potential to be extremely hazardous, and PHS could and should have done more to protect the lives of its employees and the public. The explosion and fire led to three workers being seriously injured and caused considerable disruption in the local area.

The issue of waste materials being wrongly labelled is well known in the industry, so PHS shouldn’t just have assumed it could add cardboard boxes to the industrial shredder without first checking what was in them. It could easily have made sure boxes were opened before they were put in the shredder. If it had, then the explosion and fire could have been avoided.