Company fined after Redcar man suffered radiation burns at Hartlepool site

The Redcar man was exposed to dangerous levels of x-ray radiation and suffered severe tissue damage to fingers on his right hand for which he later required surgery

A firm has been fined tens of thousands of pounds after a Teesside worker suffered radiation burns while carrying out tests on safety equipment.

The Redcar man was exposed to dangerous levels of x-ray radiation and suffered severe tissue damage to fingers on his right hand for which he later required surgery.

The incident, investigated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), was described by a judge as “an accident waiting to happen” as the man’s employers were prosecuted for serious safety failings.

The man was employed at Mistras ETS Ltd’s Graythorpe Industrial Estate premises in Hartlepool, where the company provides industrial radiography services, including x-rays.

He had been working with x-ray equipment in a radiation bay – a designated danger area – when a separate team was asked to test safety equipment and warning beacons. During one test, he remained in a radiation bay while the x-ray was energised. He received radiation exposure to his fingertips.

Prosecutor Adam Birkby told Teesside Crown Court it was simply through “good luck rather than good judgement” that more serious injury or death did not occur during the incident on September 19, 2012. The HSE investigation found that workers had developed their own ad hoc method, which led to several important safety devices being switched off.

Mistras ETS Ltd, based at Dillington, Great Staughton, St Neots, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety and radiation regulations.

Tony Cornberg, mitigating, said the exposure would have been for “no more than two seconds” and what happened had been a “freak occurrence”. He said the company had entered early guilty pleas, there had been “exemplary” compliance with the HSE and it had already paid more than £16,000 towards the investigation.

Fining the company £30,000 with £4,930 in costs, Recorder Bernard Gateshill QC said it was “an accident waiting to happen” as there was no system in force to prevent what occurred. After the hearing, HSE inspector Paul Wilson said: “The level of x-ray radiation to which this worker was exposed was capable of causing serious ill-health, including the potential for death if the x-rays had hit vital organs of his body.

“This incident could have been easily prevented if Mistras ETS Ltd had ensured proper planning and control of the work.”