Climate
Sharing lessons learned from Health & Safety Incident across the Industry
Case Study 14
Investigations into a serious health and safety incident at a UK animal by products (ABP) processing installation led to the introduction of safer working practices across the industry.


What Happened and Why It Matters
Incident overview
The incident occurred when a worker entered a partly tipped ABP raw material trailer and was overcome by hydrogen sulphide gas, causing him to fall inside the trailer. Two other workers entered the trailer to attempt to rescue their colleague, suffering the same effects. Responders were quickly alerted via the live CCTV footage of the area in the control room and the workers were safely rescued.
Gas hazards in ABP operations
Hydrogen sulphide and ammonia gases are produced by decomposing ABPs and if present in a confined space such as a trailer they can pose a significant health risk to exposed workers. Dangerous levels of these gases can build up inside ABP raw material reception buildings and most installations now have gas detector systems to warn of high gas concentrations in the workplace. Key workers in such areas also wear personal gas detectors to quickly warn them if they approach an area where gas levels are high.
Defining confined spaces
A key point noted was that confined spaces do not have to be physically confined and can be any areas where there are dangerous levels of harmful gases or oxygen deficient areas.
Industry-Wide Learning and Action
Root cause analysis
The incident investigation identified root causes and it became clear that the same hazards are present across the industry.
Knowledge sharing
The company shared their lessons learned with their industry colleagues at the EFPRA Standing Technical Committee and the FABRA UK Technical Forum. This led to the introduction of similar health and safety systems across the industry.
Specialist training
A bespoke confined spaces training facility was built at the UK installation where the incident occurred and workers from other FABRA UK member companies have been trained at the facility.
Practical competence
This gave workers knowledge of the dangers of confined spaces and practical experience of using specialist breathing apparatus for essential work in such areas.
Confined Space Emergency Instructions
Next: Case Study 15