Rolls-Royce pays £132,000 for fumes exposure

Prosecutions and Claims |
22.07.2008

Rolls-Royce has been fined £120,000 after workers suffered skin rashes and respiratory problems after being exposed to hazardous substances.

The exposure happened between July and October 2005, when five agency workers were working on the decommissioning of a light alloy foundry in Osmaston Road, Derby.

During the work, which involved removing plant and materials and using hot cutting equipment, the men were exposed to potassium fluorosilicate and oxides of sulphur.

All five suffered from rashes and two of the men also developed respiratory problems. One of the workers, 27-year-old Jason Hall, still suffers with blurred vision and dizziness and has not returned to work.

An HSE investigation found Rolls-Royce had failed to identify the risks of the work and had not put in place safe working practices.

Rolls-Royce pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act for failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of non-employees.
 
On 18 July at Derby Crown Court the company was fined £120,000 with £12,123 costs.

Sentencing, Judge David Price said, "The company must have been aware that any agency workers working on the decommissioning of the light alloy foundry would be exposed to that chemical.
 
"Yet, despite that knowledge, the risk assessment was too generic and there was no real health and safety plan prepared for such a decommissioning project.

"There should have been a plan. As a result of there not being one, five agency workers suffered reasonably long-lasting ill-health effects."

In mitigation, James Ageros said Rolls-Royce very much regretted the illness and injury suffered by the workers and accepted some of the effects were its fault.

But, he added, "Rolls-Royce was acting responsibly with what they knew at the time and with what they would have reasonably anticipated at the time as well."