UK waste sector worker deaths double in 2012/13

The number of worker deaths in the waste and recycling industry doubled last year a situation described as both disappointing and worrying by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

According to provisional data released by HSE yesterday (July 3), there were 10 fatal injuries to waste and recycling workers in 2012/13 twice that of the five worker deaths recorded during the previous year (see letsrecycle.com story).

The 2012/13 figures also show an increase on the average number of six deaths to waste and recycling workers in the past five years.

Furthermore, there were three fatalities to members of the public attributed to the waste and recycling sector under the 2007 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code 38, which covers waste collection, treatment and disposal activities and materials recovery. This brings the total number of fatalities in the waste and recycling sector last year to 13.

Injuries

However, speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, Chris Jones, chair of the Waste Industry Safety and Health (WISH) forum, said that injury rates were a better measure of health and safety than fatalities and that the waste and recycling industry was showing improvement overall.

He said: I do not want to dismiss the importance of the people that died and the loss felt by loved ones every fatality is to be regretted and, as WISH have said before, we would like to see no fatalities at all. However, it would be quite wrong to just look at fatality numbers for health and safety performance.

Mr Jones, who is also director of risk management and compliance at Cory Environmental, described 2012/13 as a particularly bad year for health and safety in the waste sector, but said he hoped that it was just a one-off.

He added: RIDDOR [Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995] numbers are much more robust and a better measure of the true picture in the waste sector. The fact that the RIDDOR rates are coming down gradually suggests that the fatality figure is likely to be an anomaly.

Blueprint

Mr Jones also said that the WISH blueprint strategy for improving health and safety in the waste industry, which was launched last month (see letsrecycle.com story) was another step in the right direction.

Graeme Walker, head of HSEs waste and recycling sector, also voiced his support for the WISH Forums blueprint, but added: The increase in workers killed last year is both disappointing and worrying as it represents a more than doubling of lives lost from the previous year.

Although it is fair to say the number of deaths has fluctuated greatly year on year over the last five years, the industry needs to make a concerted effort to end that cycle of yearly variations and bring about sustained improved performance year on year.

Step up

Calls were already made by the HSEs Chris Walker for the waste industry to step up in order to improve safety after 14 deaths were reported for the 2012/13 year up to January, (see letsrecycle.com story).

This followed a spate of waste industry incidents during 12 weeks between June and September 2012, which saw nine people killed (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, HSE explained that these figures reported during the year are based on a collated picture of as reported fatalities information on the HSE website and therefore differ from the official provisional numbers released yesterday.

According to HSE, subsequent investigation of fatalities reported during the year may determine that a death was in fact, for example, attributable to a different sector or was due to natural causes.

Across all industries in the UK, HSE figures released yesterday show that the overall rate of fatal injury has dropped to 0.5 per 100,000 workers, which below the five-year average of 0.6. HSE also claims that Britain has consistently had one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries to workers in leading industrial nations in Europe for the last eight years.