Case Study 14
Sharing lessons learned from health and safety Incident
Investigations into a serious health and safety incident at a UK animal by products (ABP) processing installation led to the introduction of safer working practices across the industry.
The incident occurred when a worker entered a partly tipped ABP raw material trailer and was overcome by hydrogen sulphide gas, causing him to fall inside the trailer. Two other workers entered the trailer to attempt to rescue their colleague, suffering the same effects. Responders were quickly alerted via the live CCTV footage of the area in the control room and the workers were safely rescued.
Hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases are produced by decomposing ABPs and if present in a confined space such as a trailer they can pose a significant health risk to exposed workers. Dangerous levels of these gases can build up inside ABP raw material reception buildings and most installations now have gas detector systems to warn of high gas concentrations in the workplace. Key workers in such areas also wear personal gas detectors to quickly warn them if they approach an area where gas levels are high.
A key point noted was that confined spaces do not have to be physically confined and can be any areas where there are dangerous levels of harmful gases or oxygen deficient areas.
Case Study 14 - Version 1, October 2023