When Maureen Kingman began her career as a factory inspector for the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) 25 years ago, the health and safety picture in factories was quite different from that seen today. "Back then, there were some machines that were responsible for huge numbers of accidents, but modern guarding techniques have virtually solved those problems. Power presses, for example, accounted for many accidents," she says. "They still continue to [contribute to accidents], but the numbers have dwindled quite considerably, Things have improved dramatically: fatal accident numbers are now around two-thirds of the number when I started inspecting in the late 1970s."
