Firm fined £55,000 after staff burned by fireball

A PHARMACEUTICAL company has been fined £55,000 after two workers escaped a fireball with their overalls ablaze.

Health and safety failures by Smithkline Beecham led to a massive flash fire that left the men with burns.

Paul Crawford and Gordon McMillan had been mixing ingredients for medical drugs when the accident happened at the 105-acre plant in Irvine, Ayrshire. They were adding extra potassium clavulanate, which is used to make antibiotics and can self-ignite, to an understrength mixture of the chemical and bulking agent Avicel.

Catriona Dow, prosecuting, told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court that neat potassium clavulanate was being blown into an industrial blender when a sieve became clogged, producing a static charge and causing ignition.

The company had a standard operating procedure in place but it did not make clear neat potassium clavulanate should be applied manually.

Ms Dow said the workers, who were wearing respirators, disposable overalls and safety shoes, managed to escape and close the door “with some difficulty”.

She added: “Their overalls were on fire but they were able to take them off.”

Mr Crawford, an experienced operator, and trainee Mr McMillan were taken to hospital and treated for minor burns after the incident in July 2013, the court heard.

Smithkline Beecham, trading at the plant as GlaxoSmithKline, admitted failing to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of health and safety risks to staff.

Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane based the £55,000 fine on the firm’s last annual turnover of £381 million and its early guilty plea.