The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain's counterpart to OSHA, is encouraging employers to assess the safety of equipment and make sure it is adequately guarded.

The guidance follows an incident in which a worker's hand was severely damaged by the rotating blades of a valve in metal-recycling equipment.

HSE prosecuted JBM International Ltd., a British company, for its failure to make a suitable risk assessment to protect operators of the equipment.

The company was also charged with failing to ensure that effective measures were taken to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery.

JBM pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching health and safety legislation and was fined.

The injured employee was checking out a possible blockage in the dust-extraction unit by removing a collection bag and reaching into the equipment with his hand.

Learn more about OSHA's recommendations and machine-guarding requirements at www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/machineguarding/index.html.