News

The deceased had worked at the paper mill for 17 months.

Details of the incident

The deceased was attempting to remove paper from a drying cylinder and became

trapped between the drying cylinder and a dryer fabric roll. This area is protected by a gate

guard which is secured by a padlock to prevent access when the paper machine is running.

The deceased went through the gate to enter into the area inside the paper machine while it

was running. He died later in the hospital from his injuries.

SAFETY ALERT

Front close fitting fixed

face guards

Start of the afterdryer

section Access gate

Following the incident, all production activities on the site were stopped and representatives

from the Police and Health & Safety Executive (HSE) came to the site to investigate the

cause.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 29th April, the HSE stated that, based on the information that

they had gathered, and subject to the following action agreed with the HSE, production

activities could commence.

• The system for control of keys used to unlock safety guards would be changed to

ensure access to hazardous areas is prevented.

HSE investigations into the root cause and exact circumstances surrounding the incident, with

the full co-operation of the company are still ongoing.

In the meantime the following actions will be taken;

• A complete review of guarding will be carried out to identify where improvements could

be made.

• Replace padlocked guards with either fixed guards, or interlocked guards, where

access is required on a regular basis.

• Review operator training procedures for non-routine tasks to ensure that they are clear.

General view of the area

with the access gate open

Possible

position of the

deceased

at the time of

the incident

Ingoing nip

between felt

roll and the

drying cylinder

CPI and Unite the Union – Actions for consideration at all paper mills

All companies are strongly advised to review their current operating procedures against the

above information, in particular

• a risk assessment must be made on all areas where there is a likelihood of manual

intervention.

• care must be taken that the risk assessment is for both standard and non routine

operations e.g. always consider, machine running without a sheet, heaviest/lightest

grammage, maintenance operations, abnormal conditions etc.

• where such a situation is identified then immediate action must be taken to eliminate

the risk using BS EN standards 294; 1992 (safety distances to prevent danger zones

…) EN 349:1993 (Minimum gaps to avoid crushing of parts of the human body) EN

1034: 2005 (Safety of machinery for the design and construction of paper making and

finishing machines), as a means of ensuring that you are working to an established

standard.

• review of guarding standards around all machines, involve safety representatives and