\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE \u2013 A cleaning services company and a worksite manager were charged on July 16 over alleged safety lapses uncovered during a probe following the death of two people who worked at national water agency<\/span><\/a> <\/i><\/span><\/a>PUB\u2019s Choa Chu Kang Waterworks in 2024<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n The cleaning company, Stargroup Est, was handed one charge under the Workplace Safety and Health (Risk Management) Regulations.<\/p>\n According to court documents, the company had failed to implement \u201creasonably practicable measures\u201d to minimise the risk to individuals at the workplace on or before May 23, 2024.<\/p>\n Lim Beng Hock, who was an authorised manager at the worksite in Nanyang Drive at the time of the alleged offences, was handed 12 charges under the Workplace Safety and Health (Confined Spaces) Regulations.<\/p>\n The 49-year-old is said to have failed to exercise due diligence when performing his tasks in connection with the issuance of confined space entry permits.<\/p>\n The cases will be mentioned again in court on Aug 13.<\/p>\n Stargroup was appointed to wash the water treatment process tanks at the waterworks from December 2021 to November 2024.<\/p>\n At the time of the incident on May 23, 2024, the company was tasked with conducting tank-cleaning operations, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a statement.<\/p>\n Four workers from the company and a Stargroup subcontractor were involved in the cleaning work.<\/p>\n Previous reports on the incident said three workers collapsed<\/span><\/a> after entering an enclosed passage beneath the tank during the cleaning process.<\/p>\n They were trying to close hand valves that had been opened earlier to drain water from the tank.<\/p>\n The workers were taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital.<\/p>\n Two workers died in the incident, while a third worker was discharged after receiving medical treatment.<\/p>\n According to MOM\u2019s investigations, the workers were exposed to hydrogen sulphide gas. The colourless toxic gas is typically emitted when sludge is drained from water treatment tanks.<\/p>\n The gas can be lethal even at low concentrations.<\/p>\n The MOM probe showed that at the time of the incident, sensors installed at the location recorded hydrogen sulphide levels that exceeded safe thresholds, triggering an alarm.<\/p>\n The ministry issued a stop-work order to PUB following the incident. The agency had to cease cleaning work on the water tanks and stop entry into confined spaces adjacent to the tanks.<\/p>\n The stop-work order was lifted on Aug 6, 2024, after PUB met the conditions set by MOM.<\/p>\n PUB said in a statement on July 16 that it was issued a composition fine under the Workplace Safety and Health Act by MOM.<\/p>\n The fine was for permitting PUB employees to enter the confined space for short periods without adequate ventilation on previous occasions.<\/p>\n The agency said that since the incident, it has installed permanent ventilation in the confined space. All confined spaces at its plants now provide \u201cadequate ventilation\u201d, even during short work periods.<\/p>\n PUB said that aside from the composition fine, one of its staff was issued a stern warning under the Act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 A cleaning services company and a worksite manager were charged on July 16 over alleged safety lapses uncovered during a probe following the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
Read Full Article At Source <\/a>
\n