Child dies in school from peanut allergic reaction-

This story highlights the importance of allergen labeling as well as strict management procedures for allergerns.

It also really highlight the tragic consequences of getting it wrong.

Ammaria Johnson, a seven-year-old elementary school student in Chesterfield County, Virginia, died after suffering an allergic reaction at school.
According to Chesterfield police spokeswoman Elizabeth Caroon, the initial investigation revealed that the Hopkins Elementary School student, a first grader, died after she suffered an allergic reaction.
Johnson’s family said it was a reaction to a peanut product. Information Johnson’s mother told CBS 6 News she learned from the school principal and a doctor who treated the child.
Emergency crews were called to Hopkins Elementary Monday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. When the EMS crew arrived, the child was in cardiac arrest, according to a Chesterfield Fire Department spokesman Lt. Jason Elmore.
The child was pronounced dead a short time later at CJW Medical Center.
The child’s mother Laura Pendleton was distraught and she has many questions.
“She has an allergy action plan at the school,” said Pendleton, which authorizes the school to give her Benadryl during a reaction. “They didn’t do that,” she said.
At the beginning of this school year, the mother said she tried to give the clinical aid an Epipen for emergencies, but she was declined and told to keep it at home.
According to Chesterfield County School policy parents are supposed to provide the school medication for children with allergies.
A section of the allergy policy entitled Responsibilities for Parents/Guardians reads:
Provide the school with all daily and emergency medications prescribed by the student’s health-care provider, following school system medication administration policies. Keep medications up to date.
A spokesman for Chesterfield County school could not comment specifically about this case and instead refered to the county’s allergy policy which reads in part:
Because it is difficult to predict the time or severity of an allergic reaction, it is vital to be prepared to respond rapidly in order to maintain a safe educational environment for all students. Supporting the success of a student with a severe allergy requires a team approach and a coordinated plan, so that all team members understand their roles. Team members include the parent/guardian, student, school staff members, health-care provider, public health nurse and community.

A component of school emergency response plans, these severe allergy guidelines outline the roles of individuals responsible for the health and well-being of students with severe allergies, supporting inclusion of all students in school activities.
Pendleton also wanted to know how her daughter got access to the peanut product.

More

Global manufacturer prosecuted over factory worker’s death -27th December 2011

A global manufacturer has been fined £180,000 after a worker was killed at an Andrex factory in Barrow-in-Furness.

Christopher Massey, a former Barrow Raiders rugby player, was struck by a piece of machinery while working on a night shift at the Kimberly-Clark plant on Park Road on 8 November 2007.

The company was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found a dangerous part of a machine, used to produce rolls of Andrex toilet paper, had been left unguarded.

Preston Crown Court heard the 28-year-old had been looking through a gap in the machine to make sure the tissue was being fed through correctly.

As he checked inside the machine at around 5.10am, it began to move a large, two-metre wide reel of tissue into place, striking him on the head. His body was discovered around twenty minutes later by colleagues shortly before the end of their shift.

The HSE investigation found the machine had been modified four months earlier so that reels of two-ply as well as single-ply toilet paper could be fed through it.

The part of the machine used to hold the large reels of tissue had been moved back so that another piece of machinery could be added to handle the two-ply toilet paper. This created a potentially dangerous gap which Mr Massey and other workers had used to check the tissue was being fed through correctly.

The court was told the factory had been short-staffed on the night of Mr Massey’s death, with two of the four workers in the team off sick. He was moved to work on the part of the machine that fed through the giant reels, despite not having had training on how to operate it since its modification.

The gap in the machine gave him the best vantage point to check the tissue, and none of the workers had been told it was not safe to stand in that position. Following his death the company fitted two sheets of clear plastic over the gap which allowed employees to check the machine without being put at risk.

David Massey, Christopher’s father, said:

“Never a day goes by when we don’t think of our son, Christopher. We are still struggling to come to terms with his death. The pain will always be with us.

“He had so much to live for. We’ll never know or understand the reasons why he had to live a life so short. And still, four years on, it is hard to comprehend what happened. He went to work and didn’t return home.

“Now, not a day goes by that we don’t visit Christopher’s grave. It evokes only sorrow and unbearable memories. We will go to our graves not ever being given the chance to say goodbye to him.

“We still celebrate Christmas but that empty chair remains a constant reminder of the wonderful close-knit family we once had, but now no longer feels complete.

“We struggle to come to terms with Christopher’s death on a daily basis. Nothing can replace him being here and dying like that. Not even the memories.”

Kimberly-Clark Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. The company, of Tower View, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, was ordered to pay £20,000 in prosecution costs in addition to the fine of £180,000 on 14 December 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE Principal Inspector Mark Dawson said:

“Significant modifications were made to this machinery which resulted in the creation of a dangerous trap point. Kimberly-Clark failed to notice this and, as a result, a young man in his prime was killed.

“None of the workers at the factory had received training on how to use the machine after it had been modified, or on how to safely check the tissue was being fed through correctly. This meant that, for several months after the modification, their lives were put at risk.

“Tragically, Chris Massey lost his life when he looked inside the machine at the moment when it moved a new reel into place. If all of the dangerous parts on the machine had been properly guarded then his life could have been saved.”

The BSIF comments on the Lofstedt Review- December -24th 2011

In March 2011, as part of the Government’s plans to reform Britain’s health and safety system, the Department for Work and Pensions’ Minister for Employment, the Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP, commissioned an independent review of health and safety legislation chaired by Professor Ragnar Lofstedt.

The results of this review, ‘Reclaiming health and safety for all: An independent review of health and safety legislation’, was published yesterday1. Within this review Professor Lofstedt makes a number of recommendations to simplify and improve the way legislation is enforced.

David Lummis, Chief Executive Officer at the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF), commenting on Professor Lofstedt’s recommendations: “The recommendations made by Professor Lofstedt seem a sensible way forward for the health and safety industry. The sector specific consolidations of health and safety regulations, combined with the removal of health and safety burdens from the self employed in low risk occupations, will improve upon aspects that may be overzealous or superfluous in Britain’s current health and safety regime. As long as these changes are communicated with all parties clearly and in a timely manner – this reduction in red tape should benefit millions.

Full comment

HSE should ‘takeover’ council inspections-23rd December 2011

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) should direct council health and safety inspections and become the primary authority for all multi-site businesses according to a government-backed review.

Professor Ragnar Löfstedt, who was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), said the HSE should be given sole responsibility for directing health and safety enforcement.

‘To ensure that enforcement is consistent and targeted on risk, there needs to be one single body directing health and safety enforcement across all workplaces. The only way to achieve this would be to pass responsibility to HSE,’ states the review.

It claimed that local authority health and safety enforcement is inconsistent.

‘Having more than 380 local authorities responsible for health and safety, each with different resources, internal pressures, competing local concerns and priorities, and responsibilities which extend beyond health and safety, will inevitably lead to some variation in enforcement, and recent evaluation has confirmed that there continues to be real inconsistency in implementation of health and safety across local authorities, with some local authorities putting it below other priorities, such as food safety,’ said the review.

Full Story

Stressed-Out Britons will spend Christmas on their smartphones -December 23rd 2011

New figures show that almost half of work-obsessed Britons will be email watching over the festive period as the recession and eurozone chaos breeds a nation of Christmas neurotics.

A staggering forty six percent of the adult population so fear losing their job, that even over Christmas they will keep an eye on their emails. The survey amongst 1000 people found that one in five people would feel competitively disadvantaged if they didn’t keep on top of their emails this Christmas. Interestingly it is the younger workforce that feel the most pressure with 18-24 year olds most inclined to look at their emails, while the over 50s feel a little more inclined to relax and not worry about work.

Carole Spiers is the author of the new book “Show Stress Who’s Boss!” and her advice for workers this Christmas is to take a break: “If people dont re-charge their batteries over the bank holiday and use it as a time to switch off, they aren’t going to be in a healthy state of mind to start the new year; which is no good for them, their family, or their employer.”

More on this topic