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Work accidents can come in all shapes and sizes – you may have fallen from a height, suffered a laceration on your finger due to a lack of protective gloves, or simply tripped in an area where there were no warning signs notifying you of a hazard.

The focus of this blog however is on a certain type of industrial disease known as Vibration White Finger also known as Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome due to the increased awareness of the variety of symptoms a sufferer can experience.

A sufferer may not just get the ‘white finger‘ so to speak, they may also suffer from cold sensations and/or tingling in the fingers, numbness in the fingers, or even a general aching feeling extending throughout the fingers and hands and further up the arms. In more extreme cases sufferers have reported a complete loss of feeling in their finger(s) which may extend up the hand and further up the arm. It’s important to note that different people will experience different symptoms with an increased or decreased severity.
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Sight is one of the most precious gifts we have as humans… It allows us to take in the beautiful scenery of the world we live in, and is how we see and interact with those around us. If we were to lose our sight through an accident, it would be a life changing injury.

The loss of sight we could suffer may either be permanent or temporary. For those who suffer a permanent loss of sight, whether partial, or total loss of sight, it is a devastating injury for the victim and their loved ones.
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A lot of people think that only those with jobs on construction sites, or similar industries, are at risk from a manual handling injury; the truth is that everyone is at risk from such an injury!

Regardless of what job you have, or where you work, it is likely that you will be asked to lift an object during your working life.
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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have created a number of guidelines and regulations to prevent workers becoming injured in horrific accidents at work. One of their guidelines state that a risk assessment should be carried out before an employee carries out work, and that everything should be done to make that risk as low as possible.

The Daily Mail reports of a man who has suffered horrific burns to his face after he was engulfed in a fireball at work.

David Lightfoot had been asked to do some welding work on a silo at a chemical plant. The silo contained 380-tons of highly inflammable Terephthalic acid, a raw material used in the plastics industry. The Daily Mail reported that as soon as Mr. Lightfoot began to weld, a fireball engulfed his head.
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Unlike any other injury at work claims – asbestos related diseases can take years to make themselves known. On average it takes between 20-40 years for symptoms of the disease to show. When symptoms do become apparent they can have drastic effects, causing life-threatening illness from diseases such as Mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a deadly form of cancer that develops in the chest; it forms a membrane that wraps itself around the lungs and other organs. Unfortunately in some cases Mesothelioma can be incurable, and if it develops progressively it can become fatal.
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We are all aware that asbestos is an extremely dangerous material, especially when it ages or becomes damaged. When it does age or become damaged it releases small fibres into the air. These fibres can then be breathed in, and may settle for a long time in the lungs.

If large amounts of fibres are breathed in they can cause diseases such as lung cancer or Mesothelioma. Both diseases are extremely dangerous and can be fatal.

Asbestos, although extremely dangerous, can take from 20-40 years to show its symptoms. This means that you could have come into contact with the disease a long time ago. Here at The Injury Lawyers we know how severe the disease can be and how it can affect the lives of thousands of workers in the UK. We want to make you aware or what types of material that may contain asbestos you come into contact with.
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Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 are designed to protect employees from any injuries caused by manual handling at work. Manual handling is not just specified to lifting but also to carrying, lowering, pushing and pulling. In order for employers to make sure their employees know how to do manual handling in a way they won’t injure themselves, they must provide manual handling training.

Records kept by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), state that the most common injury sustained by people carrying out manual handling at work is a back injury, although injuries to arms and feet are also fairly common. Records kept by the HSE also say that more than a third of all accidents at work that resulted in the person been injured for more than three days are related to manual handling at work.

A lot of us think that it’s only workers in places such as factories, building sites and farms that are at risk of having a manual handling accident. The truth is, regardless of where you work, whether it is an office, hospital or shop, etc, you’re still at risk.
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If you have an accident at work are you responsible or are your employer’s automatically responsible for failing to take “better care of you”?

This is difficult to answer with a definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’… As every case has to be judged on its own merits and there are many aspects which can influence how successful your claim is likely to be.

The first point is to establish whether or not your employer owed you a duty of care in the circumstances. Did your accident happen in your workplace; this may be in an office or out on a site you are contracted to work on? Your van or truck may be your workplace for example? If this is the case and if you had an accident whilst in your workplace then it’s more than likely that your employer owed you a duty of care.
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Burns and scalding can be very nasty injuries often leading to permanent scarring. Many people who have suffered from either injury can often carry physiological injuries too, believing that in some way it was their fault that they sustained an injury but actually this is very often untrue.

People who work in an environment that uses hot substances are more likely to suffer from a burn or scald but your employer should provide suitable equipment to prevent this from happening such as protective clothing and gloves. Plus any equipment that the hot substance is kept in should aim to protect an employee as well.
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Accidents at work are a very common occurrence, probably more so than people think. However it goes without saying that a lot of minor accidents at work are often unreported and even ignored.

This is often because employees are scared to make a fuss over such instances.
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