HSE has issued their report into Chevron Pembroke refinery explosion report. On 2nd June 2011 an explosion on the site’s amine regeneration unit killed four people and seriously injured a fifth. Following a court decision, of 6th June 2019, Chevron payed a £5.0 Million fine and court costs of £1m as part of a deal it struck with Valero Energy UK, who bought the site after the disaster. The investigation revealed a longstanding and widespread failure to understand and control risks posed by the flammable atmosphere inside the tank. The explosion and the resulting fatalities were therefore avoidable. The incident was not merely the consequence of errors by individual employees, but because of the failure of safety management systems to ensure a safe place and safe
systems of work. https://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/chevron-pembroke-report-2020.pdf?utm_source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=chevron-report&utm_content=ebul-2002
HSE have announced a program of inspections focusing on protection of workers from welding fume. The inspections follow a safety alert that was issued in February 2019 after new evidence showed exposure to mild steel welding fume can cause cancer and HSE updated guidance to reflect this. https://www.hse.gov.uk/safetybulletins/mild-steel-welding-fume.htm. Please also see our newsletter of November 2019 for more information on this subject.
HSE has published revised guidance on manage the risks of working alone. INDG73 revision 4. https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg73.pdf The updated guidance contains:
a new section on how to protect lone workers from the risk of work-related violence more information on how managers should keep in touch with lone workers new advice on the impact lone working can have on stress, mental health and wellbeing