Lawford Kidd, Personal Injury Solicitors

Choosing the right ladder type and being educated as to the dangers of asbestos are both crucial to UK worker safety, according to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health.

A recent IOSH event explained that workers should learn the importance of choosing the most suitable ladder for each specific job.

Scottish Businesses, particularly those in the Highlands, have urged to join IOSH’s ‘No Time To Lose’ campaign, which was launched to tackle work-related cancer.

Across the UK, work-related cancer results in the death of 8,000 each year with 14,000 new cases diagnosed over the same period.

Worldwide, occupational cancer kills in excess of 666,000 people annually.

A national care home provider and one of its employees have been prosecuted after a young woman suffered full thickness burns to more than 40% of her body from a scalding bath.

The incident occurred at a care home in Bathgate, and left 32-year-old Nicola Jones requiring major surgery, including amputation of all her toes. She was also left without any flesh on her ankles. She now has to use a wheelchair and faces more corrective surgery.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that one of the care support workers failed to check the temperature of the water before Nicola got in the bath.

Human factors continue to significantly outweigh other reasons for crashes on British roads, according to new analysis by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM). The road safety group has renewed its call for drivers to look on improving driving skills as part of their lifelong personal development.

Figures from the Department of Transport apparently show that in 2014 driver/rider error or reaction were cited as contributory factors in 74% of accidents, involving more than 117,000 casualties.

The second highest factor was ‘behaviour or inexperience’, which was cited as a contributory factor in 26% of accidents, accounting for more than 40,000 casualties.

Specialist heath and safety experts are calling for farmers in Northern to take the necessary steps to help protect those in the agricultural sector from being injured or even killed.

Between 2004 and 2013, 76 people have died as a result of work-related farming incidents in Northern Ireland, while since the start of 2014, in excess of 40 people have died whilst working in agriculture in Ireland. Between 2014-2015, in the UK as a whole, more than 70 farmers have died in such accidents.