Scunthorpe based Tata have been under fire recently for endangering the lives of two workers. Fortunately, the two escaped unharmed when an explosion tore through the steelworks in February 2009.

Two workmen were given the task of repairing a leaking overhead gas pipe. The pipe was one of the main gas supplies for the central power station, and initially the hole was small enough to be filled with a bung and resin. However, the repair work was put on hold after the hole grew to the size of a fist, and a new technique would have to be used.

The alternative plan was to secure a fabricated metal plate to the outside of the pipe, yet when one of the workmen started drilling into the pipe, a spark ignited live gas within the pipe, causing a stream of flames to propel from the hole in the pipe.

Only minor injuries were sustained by one of the workers, but needless to say, they both had a lucky escape. It was only when the emergency services arrived that the gas supply was isolated and the rest of the site was secured.

Tata Steel UK was taken to court and were found guilty of two separate charges of endangering the lives of employees. They were fined £30,000 and additional £1,696 in court costs.

On hearing the outcome of the trial, HSE inspector, John Moran, commented:

“Those responsible for managing safety should not ignore dangerous occurrences of this nature. Even where serious injuries are avoided, the root cause of the near miss should be thoroughly investigated, understood, and appropriate action taken. By doing this industry can prevent unnecessary incidents where the outcome might not be so favourable for those involved.”

Across the country, hundreds of ex-miners eagerly await a Court of Appeal decision regarding their rights on claiming compensation for injuries sustained during their time in the mining industry.

Hundreds of miners all over the UK claim that they suffer from problems with their knees, as a direct result of harsh working conditions in UK mines. The Durham Colliery Mechanics’ Association along with the Durham Miners’ Association had planned to attend a court hearing in February, yet news has broken that the hearing is to be rescheduled.

Last year, these groups, along with many others from around the UK, were informed that many workers would not be able to make compensation claims, because too much time had passed between employment at the mines and the injuries surfacing.

Understandably, this caused uproar amongst much of the mining community and an appeal was lodged to the Court of Appeal. However, the case, which was originally against the department for Work and Pensions, has now been passed accountability to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), hence the postponement of the hearing.

For many ex-miners, the injuries sustained and the medical conditions that have arisen since working in Britain’s mines are debilitating and can be extremely painful. As such, miners’ unions will fight this battle whole-heartedly, until a reasonable outcome is reached.

Figures released by the HSE just a few weeks ago clearly showed that construction is the most dangerous job in Britain (in terms of the number of injuries and fatalities that took place in the workplace). The results showed that 50 construction workers sadly lost their lives in 2011. However, what this figure breaks down to is 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 construction workers. In reality, the chances of being killed at work are extremely slim.

Last year, although there were slightly fewer fatalities in agricultural roles than construction, with 34 fatalities over the course of the year, this has much higher rate of 8 fatalities for every 100,000 workers. This is almost 4 times as many fatalities in relation to the total number of workers in the industry.

However, last year there were just nine fatalities in the waste and recycling but in relation to the number of workers within the industry, this works out at 8.7 deaths per 100,000 workers, effectively making it one of the most dangerous jobs in the UK. Although there is by far the highest number of injuries in the construction industry, this doesn’t necessarily make it the most dangerous industry to work in, if you were to take the fatality figures into consideration.

Of course, this is just one way of determining how dangerous an industry is for workers, and the number of minor and major injuries are not taken into account. But nonetheless, this makes the HSE fatality figures easier to digest and puts them into some sort of context.