HSE report that they have withdrawn five of their Diving Information Sheets (DVIS).  These are: Sheet 1; General diving hazards, Sheet 2; Diving system winches, Sheet 3; Breathing gas management, Sheet 4; Compression chambers and Sheet 6; Maintenance of diving bell hoist ropes.  DVIS Number 5, 7, 9, have been significantly updated in consultation with industry.  DVIS 12, 13, 14, incorporate minor updates to align with the current version of the ACoPs. DVIS 11; Diving cylinders (Guidance on their manufacture, inspection and carriage) is currently under review.

The Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency has proposed new occupational exposure limits for benzene, nickel and its compounds and acrylonitrile. https://echa.europa.eu/-/committee-for-risk-assessment-recommends-an-occupational-exposure-limit-for-benzene. Benzene is a genotoxic carcinogen, known to cause leukaemia. The proposed OEL of 0.05 parts per million will protect workers from leukaemia as well as other adverse health effects. RAC also proposed an OEL of 0.45 parts per million for acrylonitrile. For nickel and its compounds, it proposed OELs of 0.005 mg/m3 for respirable dust and 0.03 mg/m3 for inhalable dust.

The RAIB (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) has published a report into the derailment of freight wagons at a busy junction in south London. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-042018-freight-train-derailment-at-lewisham.  The derailment occurred on recently re-laid track which was formed out of pre-fabricated modular units.  The cause of the derailment was a “track twist” which occurred because of the poor support given to the track bearers by the underlying formation and the flexibility of the joins between modules.

The Chief Inspector of Rail Accidents commented “The designers of the new layout had not fully understood how this type of assembly could behave if the track bearers were not fully supported by the ballast”. He added “RAIB has investigated the interaction between poor track geometry and unevenly loaded trains several times before and has recommended action to deal with the problem. It is of concern that, although the railway industry has established a working group to examine these issues, it remains unclear how its findings will be translated into actions to mitigate the risk of freight train derailment”.