New official statistics published today (June 28) show the number of workers killed in Britains waste and recycling industry sharply increased last year.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released provisional data for the year April 2010 to March 2011, which shows the number of workers killed was nine up from just three the year before.
Peter Woolgar, HSEs head of waste and recycling, said: The increase in number of workers killed last year in the waste and recycling industry is disappointing and remains a serious cause for concern.
The fact that nine people failed to come home safe and well from their jobs last year is a stark reminder to the industry that it still has a long way to go.
The rate of injuries in the sector has consistently fallen in recent years but we need to see this improvement transferred to fatal injuries and sustained. Waste and recycling must learn from other higher-risk industries and not fall behind in managing workplace risks.
The HSE said that rate of fatal injury has stayed broadly the same at 7.0 per 100,000 workers over the past five years. The rate of fatal injury for 2010/11 is 8.7 per 100, 000 workers.
Health and Safety Open Day
Health and safety issues in the waste management sector will be discussed at a special interactive open day, ‘Health and Safety in Waste Management’, being held in Sittingbourne, Kent on September 28. For more information or to book a place for the event, which is supported by letsrecycle.com, click here.
In each of the last five years, the number of fatal injuries has been:
- 2009/10 3 workers died
- 2008/09 10 workers died
- 2007/08 6 workers died
- 2006/07 7 workers died
- 2005/06 12 workers died
The figures for 2010/11 are provisional. They will be finalised in June 2012 following any necessary adjustments arising from investigations, in which new facts can emerge about whether the accident was work-related.
The delay of a year in finalising the figures allows for such matters to be fully resolved in the light of formal interviews with all relevant witnesses, forensic investigation and coroners’ rulings.
The reporting of health and safety incidents at work is a statutory requirement, set out under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995.
A reportable incident includes: a death or major injury; any accident which does not result in major injury, but the injured person still has to take three or more days off their normal work to recover; a work related disease; a member of the public being injured as a result of work related activity and taken to hospital for treatment; or a dangerous occurrence, which does not result in a serious injury, but could have done.
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