Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Health and safety bosses accuse Macduff Shellfish of endangering workforce in wake of ammonia leak

Health and safety chiefs have accused bosses at a Mintlaw-based fish processing plant of failing to protect their workforce.

The Health and Safety Executive has been investigating Macduff Shellfish ever since a major ammonia gas leak earlier this year.

Emergency services were called to the Station Road premises at 6.23am on May 1 after safety checks identified there was a hazard.

Around 150 members of staff were evacuated from the factory as firefighters from across Aberdeenshire were scrambled to deal with the leak.

At the time, Macduff Shellfish stressed its adherence to safety procedures and its many levels of checks and measures.

But it emerged yesterday that HSE has issued two improvement notices and told the firm a lack of safety procedures had breached four laws.

It also said a lack of training on emergency procedures had endangered employees’ lives.

The safety watchdog found the company had breached four sections of the law, including the general duties of employers to their employees and others; regulations on procedures for serious and imminent danger and for danger areas; and arrangements to deal with accidents, incidents and emergencies.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


The notice reads: “You have not established and given effect to appropriate procedures to be followed in the event of serious and imminent danger to persons at work and those who may be affected off-site, created by the release of ammonia from the refrigeration system.

“Information and training on the emergency procedures and the relevant roles and responsibilities has not been provided.”

It adds that the firm did not have “appropriate arrangements for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the planned maintenance and breakdown repair activities for the plant and machinery on site”.

The first of the two notices, which were served at the end of May, has to be improved by July 9 and the second by August 27.

At the time the investigation was launched, a spokeswoman for Macduff Shellfish said: “We had an ammonia leak that is now under control.

“We safely evacuated all of our staff from the factory and followed the safety procedures in place.

“There would have been probably 150 on shift at the time our safety checks detected the issue.

“We’ve an awful lot of checks and measures in place that identify any problems 
and that’s how we were alerted.

“Ammonia is used in the factory as part of the freezing process.

“There were a few disruptions but after running safety checks yesterday afternoon we got back into the factory and we’re fully back up and running today.”

Despite several attempts to contact Macduff Shellfish, directors were unavailable to comment on the notices yesterday.