A North East company has been fined £800,000 after one of its workers suffered “life-changing” injuries and was left on life support after being caught in an explosion

The employee of International Paint Limited, of Stoneygate Lane in Gateshead, spent eight days in intensive care.

Suffering scarring all over their body and partial blindness to one eye, hearing damage, and damage to knee and shoulder they were left on life-support.

The explosion, which happened on August 4 2020, also caused significant damage to the building.

It happened while the employee, 49 at the time and from South Shields, was making paint in a large mixing vessel, which involved the use of flammable liquids.

As he was emptying resin pellets from a large bulk bag into the vessel an electrostatic charge was generated.

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This ignited flammable vapour within the vessel, causing a large explosion.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company failed to put sufficient measures in place to control the risk.

This included failure to use a correctly working extraction system to remove the flammable vapours and effective electrical earthing of the bulk bag to avoid the build-up of electrostatic charge that led to the static spark discharging.

International Paint Limited pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and was fined £800,000 with £14,032 costs at Newcastle upon Tyne Magistrates’ Court on November 30, 2022.

HSE inspector Paul Wilson said: “This incident should serve as an important reminder to industry that fire and explosion can have devastating consequences.

“It is critical that employers fully assess the risk of fire and explosion including the risk from static discharges and put the necessary control measures in place.”

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