IOSH EDINBURGH BRANCH
Minutes of 180th Edinburgh Branch Meeting
Craighouse Campus, Napier University, Edinburgh – Thursday 8 March 2007 - 130pm
Sederunt: D McAra P Weikop S McColm W Jackson P Ager V Stewart
P Graham I Murray M Grimmer B Morris K Wilson R Lovering C Watt
J Reid C Lawson D Spillett J Hooker S Keddie D Brown A Dick
JC Peoples A Pittendrigh L Roberts M Bancroft S Beaton K Lloyd M Downer S Heesom R Wilson M Johnstone A Curran G Millar D Bond L Young
B Sneddon S Scott D Richardson R Innes R McLean P Keogh M Baird
R Bradford A McLeod S Page D Cawkwell S Wilson B Grippert A McNeil
T Ambler D Johnson P Pugh AJ Baily G MacGregor R Thomson I Sinclair
R Weir J Hamilton A Sharman J Maddon T Mellon J Burt
• Accuracy: Proposer – Vic Stewart; Seconder – Roddy McLean.
Scottish Chamber of Safety Annual Conference – details distributed.
Russell Calderwood and John Lacey were standing for the pos of Chair of the Group.
The Construction Health and Safety Conference would be on Thursay 24 May 2007, Gallery Suite, NEC Birmingham. Contact wgreen@rospa.com.
Public Services: Marion reported that the National Safety Symposium would start on this year on the Sunday with a smart networking session – there would be 5/6 experts at different tables each covering a different topic.
Max Bancroft, Secretary, outlined the work of the Branch Executive Committee concentrating especially on the commitments and the (occasional) rewards of the ordinary elected members. As well as providing the input of knowledge and experience to enable the Branch to continue running via discussions at Branch Executive Committee meetings, a major contribution was in putting together the Branch programme – suggesting topics and thereafter finding and contacting speakers. There might sometimes be a free lunch if they then subsequently hosted one of the guest speakers. Nominations forms were available and would also be posted on the Branch website.
Marion requested members attending the National Conference IOSH 2007 to ensure they gave feedback on it.
John M Madden - CEng FIEE- HM Principal Electrical Inspector
of HSE – Electrical safety
The Vice-Chair Andy Sharman, introduced the speaker for the afternoon, indicating that his background included being a Graduate of Herriott Watt University with a Bachelor of Science and a Masters Degree from Birmingham University, plus formally being a Wing Commander in the RAF.
He had joined the HSE in 1992 and was since 1994 the Principle Electrical Inspector covering all of Scotland and being called upon to investigate in the order of 70 fatal accidents from electrical incidents.
He is often called upon as an expert witness and has had an input into several guidance notes whilst also being the author of a text book and with Andy’s recent move into Scottish Power he has become a more frequent contact in his life.
Introduction
The speaker indicated his agenda for the presentation would be –
• An insight into FOD’s (Field Operation Directorate’s) electrical inspectors
• Electrical/control system accidents
• Matters of concern
HSE Electrical Inspectors
John indicated that HSE Inspectors were –
• Employed in a variety of operating directorates:
– Hazardous Installations
– Nuclear Safety
– Field Operations (FOD)
• Those in FOD deal with the majority of industries and provide technical support to other Directorates and to Local Authorities and are organised into seven regions –
– Scotland with offices in
• Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen & Inverness
– Yorkshire & north east with offices in
• Leeds, Sheffield & Newcastle
– North west (which is also the FOD HQ) with offices in
• Manchester, Preston & Carlisle
– Wales and south west with offices in
• Cardiff, Bristol, Wrexham, Carmarthen, Plymouth & Poole
– Midlands with offices in
• Birmingham, Nottingham, Northampton, Marches, Worcester & Stoneleigh
– East & south east with offices in
• Basingstoke, Chelmsford, East Grinstead, Luton, Ashford & Norwich
– London with offices in
• Rose Court
– The FOD in Scotland has 1 electrical inspector – That is John Madden
• Electrical Inspectors were Chartered engineers with ‘industrial’ experience. His own background he saw as a novel change having originally been involved in how to kill people in the RAF, he was now at the other end of the spectrum in how to save them
• FOD Electrical Inspectors undertake the following:
– Inspect electrical and control systems.
– Investigate accidents and dangerous occurrences.
– Provide specialist evidence in prosecutions and FAIs. (Fatal Accident Inquiries)
– Provide guidance (in very many forms & he considered the presentation was one).
Electrical Accidents
Around 6% of work-place fatalities have an electrical cause.
· About 20 per year on average
· Around 50% are contact with overhead lines
· Reported injuries are in the range of 2000-3000
A slightly larger percentage of fatalities are machinery accidents which John has to investigate
· Predominant cause is failure to isolate before intervening.
· This amounted to 12 deaths last year and in fact his latest accident which was only the previous week was at an automated saw-mill where an employee suffered abdominal crush injuries
The majority of accidents are associated with human behaviours including -
· Failure of safe systems of work, often linked to inadequate or no risk assessments
· Poor operating or maintenance practices
· Inadequate competence, often linked to inadequate training & instruction
· Some arise from design defects, often linked with the human intervention
Safe isolation issues
A typical fatal accident - he showed a slide of a distribution board where an electrician had been working live on the system that should have been securely isolated. He was stripping a live cable to fit into a junction box for local lighting whilst kneeling on wet concrete and the power was still on because the contractors were using battery powered drills and they needed the power to recharge the batteries.
There have been eight similar fatalities in last two years so they decided to act from HSE and from an Isolation Inspection Project in 2006/7 there was -
· Evidence of widespread non-compliance with basic safe isolation procedures
· Custom and practice was not to isolate
o ‘Isolate’ means disconnect and take measures to prevent inadvertent reconnection, NOT just turning it off. Not using masking tape to say “Don’t switch on”. The HSE Inspectors expect to see it “locked off”
o The procedure also requires electricians to prove dead at the point of work using test equipment that is suitable for the purpose. His suggestion when checking electrical contractors was to ask to see the kit they use to verify the system is dead before working on it as they often make use of kit which does not comply with the requirements of GS38.
FOD’s electrical inspectors have carried out over 100 inspections of electrical contractors throughout the UK and as a consequence the following has been done -
· HSE have worked with industry to produce targeted guidance to establish benchmark standards and ECA/ESC/BEAMA/IET/SELECT are due to publish best practice guide soon.
· Principal contractors have been given advice.
· And the NICEIC inspectors are now on board whereby annual inspections will now consider the system of work as well as the installation standard.
The speaker then showed slides of activities which had been observed where Prohibition Notices were considered to be necessary. The activities included –
· Black insulation tape placed over miniature circuit breakers turned off
· Isobar switches turned off with the belief that they were isolators
· Masking tape cover over switches turned off stating “dinnea touch”
However he was also able to show good practice, where the isolation had been undertaken correctly and the circuit breakers had then been labelled to indicate they should be left off and who had undertaken the isolation.
Conclusions from the project
The problem of standards overall however was one of a very wide variability – from the good to the outright dangerous.
Principal contractors often place electrical contractors under pressure to energise boards/circuits too early.
Risk assessments and method statements on electrical matters are often good, but not followed.
Electricians know what they should be doing, but frequently follow the industry unsafe custom and practice.
· This includes not proving dead at point of work!
Complacency is endemic, but much depends upon the supervisor.
Overall, there is considerable room for improvement on safe isolation procedures. Essentially, it comes down to human factors and behaviours
Safe working practices
Implementing safe systems of work is crucial; especially during live work and when isolating
Guidance is available in HS(G)85 Electricity at work – safe working practices
In 2005/6, 11 fatal accidents had a root cause of failure to isolate hazardous machinery.
Crushing, shearing etc injuries
Matter of considerable concern
Isolation facilities must be provided
People must be competent in their use.
As an example – Accidents occur from poor isolation issues and not just electrical risks
An operator was crushed on machine producing MDF board – when he intervened to resolve a stoppage problem – the line was not isolated as he had assumed the interlock gates would be sufficient protection and he inadvertently tripped a photocell which activated the machine and his head was crushed between the end of conveyor and the press
Overhead Line Incidents
These account for about 50% of all electrical deaths at work. There were two in Scotland last summer, another one 6 weeks ago, with many more ‘near misses’.
Transmission lines (those on the full pylons) carry 132,000V to 400,000V
Distribution lines (HV) (those on poles carrying three cables) carry 11,000V and 33,000V. These are the most frequent source of overhead fatal incidents as they are set fairly low only having to be a minimum of 5.2 metres high. Underground distribution was proposed but the cost benefit was not considered to be economic and there are still some 60,000 underground cable strikes per year.
Distribution lines (LV) (those on poles where you tend to see lots of wires carry 415V which do not normally result in a fatality.
As examples the speaker indicated cases where –
· Two workers were killed when they were changing street lighting poles. One man was to guide the pole as it was lifted out of the ground by a digger being operated by the second man. The pole swung round and touched 11kv overhead cables which were close to their operation. Fatalities had resulted from inadequate risk assessments.
· A 17 year old football apprentice was killed when he moved a netting frame (used to stop the ball going too far if it missed the goal during training) but unfortunately he brought it into contact with an 11kv line which was over the grounds. We tend not to notice these things, or just become oblivious to them.
· The sequence of events when a mobile crane came into contact with an overhead line – the explosions being so powerful as to lift the machine off the ground and this was followed by a severe fire
Prevention
The means of prevention of incidents involving overhead lines is well-established and is published in Guidance Note GS6. Where work has to be carried out near OHLs that cannot be diverted, undergrounded or made dead, then the operation must follow precautions as laid out in GS6 – Avoidance of danger from overhead electric power lines.
Typically, the use of an excavator on a construction site where there are overhead lines, where the precautionary techniques include the erection of goalposts, but all too often they are either not in existence or they are in a state of disrepair.
Hampton Report
The HSE is to take over responsibility for public safety with respect to electricity generation, transmission and distribution. The details of the responsibility being covered by the Electricity Safety Quality and Continuity Regulations 2002; made under Electricity Act 1989.
Three DTI inspectors are to be transferred to HSE in October 06.
In the opinion of the speaker this should show significant benefits.
The speaker then indicated that he had covered –
• 3 matters of concern:
– Isolation of electrical systems
– Isolation of plant
– Safety from overhead lines
These are not the only matters to do with electrical safety, but they currently dominate the work of the HSE Electrical Inspectors and as a consequence he added that anything which the members can do to help, as safety practitioners, would be much appreciated
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Max Bancroft, MRSC, CMIOSH Branch Secretary |
Richard Lovering, CFIOSH Branch Executive Committee |