Lawford Kidd's Blog

A national standard for the management of work-related road risk would be welcomed by businesses, and should include ‘back to basics' advice to practitioners about the processes and interventions they should be using to manage and lower their risk, according to new research by TRL.

Dr Shaun Helman, who led the research, said: "For some time, we have known that work-related road collisions represent a serious injury burden, with at least around a fifth and perhaps as many as a third of injury road collisions in Great Britain involving someone who is driving for work at the time."

One of the key general findings of the research was that the management of work-related road risk is widely perceived to be lagging behind the management of health and safety risk in the workplace.

The Attorney General, Dominic Grieve QC MP, has announced that although his consideration of the evidence is not complete, he has made the decision to apply to the High Court to quash the inquest verdicts of the 96 victims and order fresh inquests.

He will now write to the families of the victims to give them the opportunity to make representations, and continue the detailed work of preparing an application.

The Attorney General, in a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament, said:

Reducing health risks in the field of nanotechnology is the aim of a new initiative released by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

IOSH co-commissioned the UK NanoSafety Partnership Group to produce the first-ever health and safety guidance for working with nanomaterials in research and development.

Nanotechnologies offer potentially huge benefits to society, industry, the environment and health. The guide looks at an array of topics, including risk management, toxicology, exposure control and health surveillance.

Leading claims compensation law firm Lawford Kidd has announced the appointment of Val Roberts as a Consultant with the firm. Val has been practising for 20 years and is one of Scotland’s best known claimant lawyers.

Lawford Kidd specialises in representing accident victims and was the first Scottish firm to receive corporate accreditation from APIL, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

Val has a wealth of experience in dealing with high value complex claims including fatal accident and catastrophic injuries. She has acted in a number of serious off-shore cases and has experience in foreign jurisdictions with settlements of accident claims in Europe, Africa and America.

An American court has awarded substantial damages to a man who claimed he became ill after years of breathing in the fumes of microwave popcorn, reports Yahoo!

The 59-year-old from Colorado was diagnosed with a respiratory condition known as 'popcorn lung' in 2007, after eating the microwave popcorn on an almost daily basis for a number of years. A few previous cases, brought by popcorn factory workers, have linked the condition to diacetyl, which is contained in the butter flavouring added to some popcorn.

The court found that the liability for the man's injury was shared between the manufacturer of the popcorn (80%) and the supermarket where he bought it (20%) for failing to warn of the alleged dangers of diacetyl, and awarded him compensation amounting to $7.2 million. According to Yahoo! both organisations intend to appeal against the ruling.