A metal recycling firm and its director have been sentenced after a 15-year-old employee of the company suffered serious burns following an explosion and flash fire.
Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard that on 1 August 2019 the boy, working on a casual basis for A & S Metal Recycling Limited, suffered 22 per cent burns to his body when aerosol canisters he had fed into a shredding machine exploded causing a flash fire at an industrial unit in Worcestershire.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the work unit was not an appropriate facility for processing aerosol canisters; control measures to prevent or mitigate fire and explosion risks were not put in place. Despite this, the activity was undertaken by minors, employed as a part of a casual working arrangement, using inadequate equipment.