Cactus causes workplace accident and nearly blinds worker

Published on Dec 1

A maintenance worker in Milton Keynes was injured by a cactus in a shopping centre. His role included general maintenance work, including pruning plants. Whilst he was pruning a 30ft cactus, he was squirted in the right eye by sap.

Cactus sap is toxic and can have a harmful effect on the human body. The cactus sap caused blisters to form on the worker’s skin and damaged his eye, burning the cornea. His eyesight has recovered but he still needs to wear special glasses in bright light.

A HSE investigation found that the worker’s employers had failed to provide adequate safety equipment and training. Describing the incident, the worker said, “I thought it would just be a few pot plants but these cacti were 30 foot high. I had no idea what I was working with.” The company was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £4,000 in costs.

Gardening can be a risky activity and professional gardeners face a variety of potential workplace accidents. The BBC Gardening website comments that in 2004, around 300,000 people attended Accident and Emergency departments after having an accident in the garden, of which around 87,000 were caused by gardening activities. Professional gardeners, landscapers and ground workers often work with complicated and dangerous machinery including powerful lawnmowers, strimmers and chainsaws. If work is not carefully planned and if proper safety procedures and risk assessments are not implemented, the result can be serious injury.

A landscape gardener was recently injured after a small metal object flew into his eye after it was dislodged by his lawnmower. The gardener had checked the area for debris before he started mowing but did not spot the object. As a result of this workplace accident, he has been left blind in his right eye. His employer has accepted liability after failing to provide goggles for this work. With the correct goggles, this accident could have been avoided. The gardener is awaiting legal proceedings for compensation but the fact that his employer has accepted liability indicates that he is likely to receive compensation.

The HSE report ‘Fatal Injuries in farming, forestry and agriculture 1999-2000’ includes the case study of a grounds maintenance worker who was mowing an overgrown bank. The long grass obscured a 2 metre drop. He fell into water that was 3 metres deep and drowned.

According to the website ‘Lawn and Mower,’ the most common types of lawnmower accidents are caused by: contact with the mower blade, electrocution, being hit by a reversing lawnmower, burns from contact with the engine, injury from an object dislodged and caused to fly from underneath the mower and having the weight of the mower falling onto a person, either from going up a steep bank or round a tight corner.

For any worker that works with lawnmowers or any other landscaping tools, it is important that they are trained in the proper operation of the machine and that they are provided with safety equipment  where appropriate, such as a circuit breaker to avoid electrocution if a wire is severed.