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Oil and Gas Rig accident solicitors.
It goes without saying that employees working on offshore oil and gas rigs have to be more vigilant to the risks of personal injury than most.
In order to avoid injury to workers, oil and gas site employees should be offered Personal Protecive Equipment. Many people who work on offshore oil and gas rigs and required to wear portable monitors that detect hydrogen sulphide, benzene, butane, and methane.
But accidents do still happen, so if you have been injured whilst working on an oil or gas rig, in the last 3 years, contact MG Legal's expert personal injury solicitors. Our solicitors accept all work-related injury cases, on a No Win No Fee Basis, with no financial risk to you.
Get in touch today to start your claim for personal injury compensation
MG Legal accept all Personal Injury Compensation claims on a "No Win, No Fee" basis and have a success rate of over 99%
What types of injury are sustained on oil and gas rigs?
The offshore oil and gas industry continually strives to improve personal and process safety, using performance indicators to monitor how well
this is being managed.
The UK Oil and Gas Industry Association reported that there were no work-related fatalities. There were however many other injuries sustained with the most common being as follows:
Fractures were the most common type of reportable injury, followed by strains and sprains;
Slips, trips and falls, and lifting and handling injuries were the most common causes of injuries;
The UK's lost-time injury frequency is higher than the all-European average, at 0.72 per million man-hours compared to 0.7, but lower than Denmark and Norway.
Have you been injured in the last three years?
What is the Hearing Protection Standard on an oil rig?
If you are employed in any working environment, from an oil or gas rig, bar, building site or working in a factory or garage, if you are exposed to noise levels of over 85 dBA/TWA, the standard requires that a Hearing Conservation Program be implemented. In order to prevent Noise Induced Hearing Loss or other injury to their employees, employers must:
1. Carry out regular noise evaluations.
2. Use the noise evaluation to select appropriate hearing protection for employees,
and visitors to the place of work. Selection of hearing protection.
If you are an employee working in a noisy environment, such as an oil or gas rig, then your employer has a duty to ensure that PPE hearing equipment is made available to you.
Hearing Equipment must, in accordance with DIN EN 352, be marked with:
• manufacturer's name or trademark and model name
• EN number
• instructions on insertion, application and wearing (as necessary)
• nominal size
• CE marking
• indication of reusability or single use (relevant for earplugs)
• left or right marking (for otoplastics)
When should oil and gas rig workers be offered ear protection in the workplace?
Earmuffs and Ear Defenders:
When working in a noisy environment, employees should be offered, and must wear earmuffs in accordance with standard DIN EN 352-1. Earmuffs that are subject to industry standard DIN EN 352-1 are defined as hearing protectors that enclose each of the wearer's ears with a functional capsule. Often employers will supply earplugs rather than earmuffs, and forget that employees work with other workers, and need to talk to discuss the job they are doing. To avoid personal injury to the ears, earmuffs are staple PPE equipment, and should be readily available to all employees working in a noisy environment.
Earplugs:
Smaller, and at times more practical then ear defenders, DIN EN 352-2 defines earplugs as all hearing protectors that are worn directly in the auditory canal or ear cavity. According to the regulations, use of earplugs should be given to all employees that are subject to the following in their working environment:
• a work site that has continuous noise (lower frequencies)
• when earmuffs tend to cause strong sweating
• when also wearing safety spectacles
• when wearing other protective equipment such as head protection or face
protection
• together with earmuffs for brief periods of extreme noise
Should I have been offered hand protection PPE?
MG Legal’s expert personal injury solicitors often represent oil and gas rig workers, who have cut, bruised, crushed, or even lost fingers as a result of improper working practice, incorrect Personal Protective Equipment being offered, or no Personal Protective Equipment being offered, at all.
The rules relating to Hand Protection PPE are as follows:
Always use machine guards and do not bypass safety measures;
Safety gloves that all employers should provide include;
Metal mesh gloves, for employees working with sharp objects, such as butchers;
Leather gloves - for rough surfaces including carpenters, and those working with untreated wood and stone;
Vinyl & neoprene gloves must be offered and worn when an employee is handling toxic chemicals;
Dielectric, non-conductive rubber gloves to ensure that electric shocks are avoided. Any employee working with electrics should be given these by their employer- from auto-electricians, electricians, telephone line installers and repairers, construction site workers, and power plant operators;
Padded cloth gloves will ensure that if you are working with materials such as sheet metal or glass with sharp edges, or prone to shattering, that personal injury to your hands is kept to a minimum;
Heat resistant gloves, when working with - extreme temperatures, such as glass moulding, or metal work;
Latex disposable gloves should be made available to those employees working in environments containing bacteria, germs, and harmful pathogens;
Lead lined gloves in order to prevent radiation poisoning to the employee, should be available to those working in an environment containing radiation, such as radiology technicians, members of the military, nuclear power plant employees and mine workers;
Antibacterial hand wash should be made available to all workers, no matter what their role.
Should I have been offered foot protection PPE?
MG Legal’s expert personal injury solicitors have handled all sorts of different foot-related personal injury claims for oil and gas rig workers who have been injured in the workplace. If you work in an environment involving machinery, chemicals, or dangerous plant or equipment, it is essential that your employer carries out appropriate risk assessments to keep the risk of injuries to the foot to a minimum.
The following are all injuries and possible hazards that should be assessed before selecting proper foot Personal Protective Equipment:
• Impact injuries – such as objects falling or being dropped on your feet;
• Spills and splashes- including chemicals, hot or freezing water;
• Crushing injuries- from heavy plant and machinery, including vehicles, forklift
trucks;
Electrical shocks- from exposed electrical wires and cables;
• Extreme temperatures and moisture- any worker who has to enter a freezer, such
as a supermarket worker, or butcher;
• Slipping- the most common way that oil and gas employees are injured arises out
of slipping and tripping accidents. From working on a cruise ship, to a local
swimming pool, wine bar or supermarket, there are many job roles that involve
liquids that can be hazardous if not cleaned up.
When you are working on an oil rig or gas rig, appropriate risk assessments will classify suitable footwear, and employers are duty bound to provide suitable footwear for each employee’s role. As with Personal Protective Equipment for hands, footwear is classified as follows:
• Metatarsal footwear - protect the entire foot from ankle to toes;
• Footwear with a reinforced sole - will protect the foot from punctures, stab wounds from glass, sheet metal and needle sticks;
• Latex and rubber footwear - protects from chemicals and prevents slipping on spilled liquids, toxic substances, and ice;
• Butyl - will protect against ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, acids, salts, and alkalies;
• Nitrile - resists animal fats, oils, and chemicals.
Should I be offered Eye Protection at work?
The eye protection chosen for specific work situations depends upon the circumstances of exposure, other PPE used, and personal vision needs of the employee. There are a number of different eye protection types, from safety glasses, to goggles, and full-face respirators, and any form of eye protection chosen by an employer must be comfortable and allow for sufficient peripheral vision and must be adjustable to ensure a secure fit.
If you have suffered from injuries as a result of not being offered eye protection, and are wondeirng whether you can make a claim for financial compensation, get in touch with MG Legal's specialist accident at work solicitors.
How to make an accident at work compensation claim for an injury working on an oil and gas rig?
If you are looking to make an accident at work claim for injuries sustained in an oil and gas rig accident, then your first step is to get in touch with a specialist farm accident personal injury solicitor.
MG Legal’s team of personal injury solicitors are experts in all aspects of accident at work claims, including oil and gas rig accidents. Whether you have been injured by a falling object, chemical exposure, or a lifting accident, then our team are here to help.
Our accident at work specialists accept all of our personal injury claims on a NO WIN NO FEE basis, meaning you are at no financial risk as our client. Get in touch today, here, for a no-obligation discussion of your claim.
