Food manufacturer fined after worker burned by oil

Harvey Hopwood, the health and safety manager at PAS (Grantham), sustained 10% burns to his shoulder, upper arms, neck and back while he was overseeing the jet washing of a large oil storage tank at the Easton-based company in November 2012. Grantham Magistrates' Court heard that he climbed between the guard rails on the gantry at the top of the tank to check how the work was progressing. As he did so, he knocked a pipe connected to a pressure gauge, which came off and released oil over 160 degs C in temperature over his upper body. Mr Hopwood was off work for over a month before later leaving the company. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to carry out a risk assessment for the cleaning operation, and instead decided to do the work first and write it retrospectively. PAS (Grantham) of Easton, was fined £16,500 and ordered to pay £571 in costs after pleading guilty to a single breach of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.