Floor glue vapours kill home repair worker

Darren Nevill, 38, was working for Join Property Providers Restricted laying a vinyl lavatory ground at a property in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire on 9 December 2020.

His employer bought an adhesive containing the solvent Dichloromethane (DCM). Small volumes will give off massive quantities of colourless, low odour vapour, even at room temperature. He used this repeatedly throughout his employment.

On the day of his loss of life, the hose to the pressurised glue canister grew to become broken, releasing a considerable amount of adhesive into the poorly ventilated lavatory.Nevill misplaced consciousness and collapsed. Emergency providers needed to drive entry to the lavatory to succeed in him.

An HSE investigation discovered that Join Property Providers Restricted had did not take acceptable precautions to make sure substances hazardous to well being will not be used when safer options can be found.

The corporate pleaded responsible at Stevenage Magistrates Courtroom and was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay prices of £9676.81 with a surcharge of £190.

Prosecutor Jon Mack informed the court docket “HSE scientists calculated that the statutory 15-minute publicity restrict for DCM would have been reached inside 2-13 seconds, and the ultimate focus within the lavatory on the time of Mr Nevill’s loss of life would have been 84.5 instances the publicity restrict. Mr Nevill was discovered to have thrice the deadly focus of DCM.”

Talking after the listening to, HSE inspector Rauf Ahmed stated: “Our ideas immediately are with the household of Mr Nevill, who was simply setting out on his profession in development. He ought to have returned house safely to his household on the finish of his working day however, due to the failings of Join Property Providers Restricted, he didn’t.”