Four directors of a carbon credit company have been banned for a total of forty-two years. Their company, World Future, sold voluntary emission reduction carbon credits (VERs) at highly inflated prices to members of the public as an investment. They netted at least £2,484,500 although the credits actually had no investment potential.
VERs are fundamentally different from the licences to pollute (such as CERs) that can be readily traded in the compliance carbon market established under the Kyoto protocol. VERs are intended to be used by businesses or individuals to offset their carbon footprints. Unlike with CERs, there is no readily accessible market where customers can sell on their VERs in the hope of being able to make a profit.
The COMAH Strategic Forum (CSF) has developed an external web community (CSFweb) to provide information, news, guidance and reports on the work of the forum and allied groups such as the Chemical and Downstream Oil Industries Forum (CDOIF). CDOIF material previously located on the HSE website has been copied across to CSFweb and visitors to the CDOIF site will in future be transferred automatically to the CDOIF pages of the CSFweb. CSF is a joint industry and regulator forum working to improve major accident hazard management and raise standards across industry. CSFweb is at http://webcommunities.hse.gov.uk/connect.ti/COMAHSF/groupHome
HSE reports that an operator’s finger was crushed between packs of concrete blocks on a conveyor when the light curtains failed. The employee’s task was to hand label packs of concrete blocks at the end of a production line. The work station was protected by light barriers which are intended to prevent the conveyor starting up when someone was in the area.
Whilst applying a label the conveyor started up and a pack moved forward trapping and crushing his finger. Subsequent investigation found that the curtains were not safety rated and were ‘fooled’ by the strip on the high visibility PPE worn by the employee, which reflected the beam back to the receiving sensor.
Risk assessment of pushing and pulling (RAPP) tool. This tool aids the identification of high-risk pushing and pulling operations and check the effectiveness of any risk-reduction measures.
Two types of pulling and pushing operations can be assessed using this tool:
moving loads on wheeled equipment, such as hand trolleys, pump trucks, carts or wheelbarrows; moving loads without wheels, which might involve actions such as dragging/sliding, churning (pivoting and rolling) and rolling.For each type of assessment there is a flow chart, an assessment guide and a score sheet. The flow charts provide an overview of the risk factors and assessment process, while the assessment guides provide information to help determine the level of risk for each factor. http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg478.pdf. This document may also be found in the guidance section of the Simplifi-Solutions website.