Company fined over hazardous dust exposure
Categories:
General Health and Safety |
A Lincolnshire company has been fined a total of £12,500 after its workers were found to have been exposed to potentially harmful wood dust.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is now warning businesses to ensure that they have safe systems in place for employees "using cutting machinery on woods which generate hazardous dusts" that can lead to long-term respiratory problems.
Employees at the fined business were exposed to Western Red Cedar wood dust, despite managers attending a HSE woodworking Safety and Health Awareness Day just seven months before one worker was injured by a running woodworking machine and colleagues suffered dust exposure.
Skegness Magistrates Court fined the firm £12,500 and ordered it to pay £5,000 costs after pleading guilty to breaching the Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Provision of Use of Work Equipment Regulations.
Dr Ian James Ellison, HSE Inspector for Lincolnshire, stated: "Employers must ensure that this sort of work is properly planned to take account of health and safety risks and that employees are made fully aware of the risks associated with cutting machinery and hazardous substances."
A total of 36 million working days were lost overall last year as a result of work-related ill health or workplace injury, with 2.2 million people suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work and a further 274,000 reportable injuries taking place.
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