Renderer's fines exceed ￡1 million

摘要

An animal rendering firm has been fined ￡660,000 after a contractor was killed while repairing an industrial cooker. The fine, which represents 24% of John Pointon & Sons' most recent profits, follows a ￡620,000 fine imposed on the company in 2007-which was reduced to ￡460,000 on appeal-after an employee was killed in 2004 on the same processing line at its plant in Leek, Staffordshire (HSB 362 p.3). Both incidents involved work in confined spaces. The processing line involves raw animal material being fed into a hopper, through a crusher and then into a large cooker, where up to 24 tonnes of meat is "superheated" to 150℃ by steam from a central shaft. Once the material is cooked, it is extracted through a discharge screw. On 5 November 2011, there was a fault with the screw. Mark Bullock, a self-employed maintenance engineer, was asked to repair the screw. While he was inside the cooker, steam entered from elsewhere in the system. He was badly scalded and died in hospital the following day.