Recent and earlier HSE research reports
Chris Peace
Lecturer in Occupational Health and Safety at Victoria University of Wellington
The UK Health and Safety Executive published research reports from work it has commissioned. Some of the research will be of a minority interest but much may have a wider appeal. I’ve just catalogued some recent reports and abstracted the following information about them. I’ve also indicated who might be interested in them in New Zealand and elsewhere. To find these or related, earlier reports visit the HSE website and navigate to the research report number of interest. They are all free to download.
Fire safety in major hazard sites
Engineered composite repairs are used to repair defective and corroded pipework on major hazard plant both on and offshore (Jagger et al., 2022). This includes chemical plant, oil refineries and offshore installations. Pipework includes: that carrying flammable or toxic process fluids; and that within safety critical systems, for instance carrying firefighting deluge water.
One concern is that in the event of a fire incident, the materials used to make composite repairs, such as glass fibre or carbon fibre reinforced polymer systems, might begin to leak more quickly than metallic pipework. If this were the case, it could potentially increase the severity of a fire incident. This report describes a preliminary programme of experimental tests to explore the effect of liquid pool fires and burning jets of gas on engineered composite repairs. This is important information for industry as part of ensuring that existing levels of safety are maintained.
The research identified evidence gaps about the behaviour of composite wraps in fire scenarios. No previous experimental evidence was available (and there may also be no such evidence in New Zealand).
This report will be of interest to those responsible for the ongoing integrity and safety of major hazard plant.
Related research considered preventing catastrophic events in construction (Gilbertson et al., 2011)
Fire in high-rise buildings
The Grenfell Tower disaster in London on 14 June 2017 killed 72 people and injured more than 70 others. The subsequent Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety concluded that the UK building safety system is inadequate. The UK Government accepted the review’s recommendation for a new regulatory framework. A Joint Regulators’ Group was established to help the transition to this proposed framework. This report (Bettis et al., 2021) describes research in 2019 for the Joint Regulators’ Group.
The research aims to identify a preliminary set of representative serious incident scenarios for high rise residential buildings, and potential control measures. The researchers: reviewed the literature on high rise building incidents, and the regulation of major rail and industrial incidents; and conducted workshops to extract critical knowledge from sector representatives.
The research team has experience in safety case regimes, risk management, building construction, and fire. They used formal risk analysis techniques (‘HAZID’ and ‘bow tie’) to structure the process, and a Hierarchy of Controls approach to rank the effectiveness of potential control measures. They considered rapidly escalating events requiring immediate large scale emergency response.
The report identifies ten preliminary representative serious incident scenarios. The potential control measures identified for consideration include: establishing a safety regime based on assessment of serious incident scenarios; development of an initial safety narrative for each building; near-miss incident recording; guidance for duty holders; and strong and committed leadership from duty holders, the wider sector, and the future regulator. These findings are being used to inform the development of a risk framework for the proposed new safety case regime.
While NZ does not have such a regulatory regime the research and proposals should be of interest to those who own, manage, or develop such high-rise residential buildings that is or could be a workplace within the meaning of our Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
Asbestos still killing workers and others
Despite the regulatory regime for the control of asbestos in New Zealand asbestos-related deaths continue. In the UK there are about 5,000 cancer deaths a year attributed to asbestos, mainly due to past industrial exposures and it can be found there in many buildings built before 2000.
The aim of this research (Barrowcliffe & Davies, 2022) was to provide information on asbestos exposures to licensed removal workers in the UK and to assess compliance of work practices with HSE guidance. The researchers monitored airborne fibre concentrations using samplers and observed work practices. The removal contractors and workers participated on a voluntary basis. The findings are therefore likely to indicate exposure levels and working practices for contractors and workers undertaking licensed asbestos removal who are attempting to adopt good practice. The findings are not intended to be representative of the removals industry as a whole.
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There were three main research findings:
(1) Asbestos fibres were present in the airborne fibres samples.
(2) Some airborne fibre concentrations measured in the study were above the UK limit.
(3) There is scope for further exposure reduction, for example by ensuring that workers wear respiratory protective equipment (RPE) during set up and dismantling of the enclosure used for removal activities.
Related research investigated: mortality among asbestos workers 1971–2005 (Harding & Frost, 2009); the effectiveness of the UK Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (Lekka et al., 2015); what influences the behaviour of maintenance workers in relation to asbestos (O’Regan et al., 2007); the minimum space requirement for removal of asbestos insulating board ceiling tiles (Okunribido, 2019); ventilation of enclosures for removal of asbestos containing materials (Pocock et al., 2013).
References
Barrowcliffe, D., & Davies, L. (2022). Asbestos exposures to workers in the licensed asbestos removal industry [Research Report RR1176]. Health and Safety Executive, Buxton, UK https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Bettis, R., Chaplin, Z., Corbett, E., Dobbin, G., Garcia, M., Healey, N., Lekka, C., MacBeth, R., Rigby, N., Wardman, M., Wilday, J., Wood, L., Abeysekera, I., & Cormie, D. (2021). High Rise Residential Buildings: Preliminary; Serious Incident Scenarios and Potential Control Measures [Research Report RR1170]. Health and Safety Executive, Buxton, UK https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Gilbertson, A., Kappia, J., Bosher, L., & Gibb, A. (2011). Preventing catastrophic events in construction [Research Report RR0834]. Health and Safety Executive, Sudbury https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Harding, A.-H., & Frost, G. (2009). The Asbestos Survey: Mortality among asbestos workers 1971–2005 [Research Report RR0730]. Health and Safety Executive, Sudbury https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Jagger, S., Willoughby, D., & Gill, J. (2022). Preliminary Fire Testing of Composite Pipe Repairs [Research Report RR1181]. Health and Safety Executive, Buxton, UK https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Lekka, C., Beards, P., Bell, N., Binch, S., & Smith, P. (2015). Dutyholder evidence Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (Post Implementation Review) [Research Report RR1106]. Health and Safety Executive, Sudbury https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
O’Regan, S., Tyers, C., Hill, D., Gordon-Dseagu, V., & Rick, J. (2007). Taking risks with asbestos: What influences the behaviour of maintenance workers? [Research Report RR0558]. Health and Safety Executive, Sudbury https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm
Okunribido, O. (2019). An ergonomics study of the minimum space requirement for removal of Asbestos Insulating Board (AIB) ceiling tiles [Research Report RR1152]. Health and Safety Executive, Sudbury https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/index.htm