A Welsh health board has been fined £160,000 after three of its employees were permanently injured using power tools. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that Powys Teaching Health Board failed to carry out proper risk assessments on three workers who went on to be diagnosed with hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS).
All three employees were routinely required to operate handheld power tools such as lawn mowers, strimmers and hedge cutters. However the HSE found there was no monitoring or any estimate of exposure to vibration even though employees - particularly during the summer months - operated handheld power tools for several hours a day.
The investigation identified that the health board had failed to properly assess the levels of exposure to its employees and that information, instruction and training given to staff was limited. It also found that the health board had ignored requests from its own occupational health department to conduct a risk assessment.
