Chemicals company fined £800,000

A north-east England chemicals company was fined £800,000 after a worker suffered life-changing injuries in an explosion. The explosion, which occurred on 4 August 2020 also caused significant damage to the building.  An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identified that the company failed to put sufficient measures in place to control the risk. This included a failure to use a correctly working extraction system to remove the flammable vapours and effective electrical earthing of the bulk bag to prevent the build-up of electrostatic charge that led to the static spark discharging.