Ignoring vibration for 14 years leaves two workers with HAVS

摘要

A medical device manufacturer has been fined ￡246,000 and ordered to pay costs of ￡15,788 for failing to control adequately the risk to its employees when using vibrating tools. The fine equates to 19% of the most recent pre-tax profit made by the company, Frontier Plastics. The prosecution is the third in the past year to result in six-figure penalties for failures leading to Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS), following fines of ￡500,000 for Saint-Gobain Construction Products UK and ￡300,000 for AIM Engineering (see box 1). The vibration exposures took place at Frontier Plastics' site in Blackwood, Gwent and involved tools such as strimmers, hedge cutters, grinders, drills and linishers. The exposures occurred for long periods of time and, as a result, two employees, the earliest of whom had been using the tools since he started at the company in 1991, have been left suffering from HAVS. Approximately 13 other employees were exposed to the risks, although the exact number of workers cannot be determined.