Dust Buster – Timbercraft Windows Pays Penalty

Timbercraft Windows & Doors has been hit with a £4,000 fine after repeatedly failing to protect its workers from exposure to wood dust having been warned three times by the HSE.

The firm also manufactures wooden conservatories. Over a twelve-year period, it has consistently ignored the Health & Safety Executive to get its cleaning programmes up to scratch and to maintain them. Those visits, to the company’s workshop on Severalls Industrial Park in Colchester, identified large build-ups of wood dust around machinery as well as other health and safety breaches. These included workers not being provided with suitable respiratory protective equipment.

The amount of wood dust on the premises put workers at risk. Breathing in wood dust excessively can cause asthma and nasal cancer and it has also been implocated in early onset dementia.

 

Investigation

An HSE investigation found the company failed to adequately control and prevent its employee’s exposure to wood dust in the following ways:

• Inadequate local exhaust ventilation and a failure to have its LEV thoroughly examined and tested within the 14 months preceding the commencement of action.

• Failure to have employees face fit tested for their RPE – it is important that masks are bespoke in such hazardous environments.

• Common dry sweeping of wood dust.

• Using compressed air lines for clearing of wood dust from machines.

• Using incorrect L class vacuums.

• Failure to have employees who were exposed to wood dust under health surveillance.

• Following the December 2022 inspection, three improvement notices were served relating to control of wood dust. A further improvement notice was served relating to arrangements for monitoring, guarding and other protection devices on machinery.

Each visit by HSE inspectors during the past 12 years had resulted in improvement notices being issued, along with other action taken. However, despite this, the company still failed to act, including to provide its workers with suitable RPE.

Timbercraft Windows & Doors Limited, of Crowborough East Sussex, pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 9(2), 11(1) and 7(1) of Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.

The company was fined £4,000 and was ordered to pay £2,792 costs at a hearing at Colchester Magistrates Court on the 16 of January 2025.

HSE inspector Tom McQuade said: “Just seeing the piles of wood dust lying around gave us an indication of how much workers would have been exposed.

“The risks from exposure to wood dust are well known and exposure can cause irreparable harm.

“The fine imposed should highlight to employers in the woodworking industry that the courts and HSE, take failure to control exposure to harmful substances, such as wood dust, extremely seriously.”  For each of the failures of Timbercraft Windows & Doors, there are widely know practices to avoid them: 

 

Health checks

Health surveillance should be undertaken for employees exposed to wood dust. A system of on-going health checks to detect ill-health effects such as occupational asthma at an early stage should be put in place.

Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) in woodworking should be subject to a thorough examination and test by a competent person, no less frequent than every 14 months. It is a detailed and systematic examination sufficient to make sure the LEV can continue to perform as intended by design and will contribute to the adequate control of exposure.

Adequate LEV will be dependent upon the process, however guidance sheets for control of wood dust at woodworking machines are available for free from the HSE website.

 

Fit testing

Face fit testing is required for tight fitting RPE to ensure that it fits the wearers face and does not leak, as this would increase the wearer’s exposure.

 

Cleaning

Wood dust should be cleared on a regular basis using a minimum of an M class vacuum. Dry sweeping and use of compressed air lines should not be used for clearing of wood dust as they create plumes of dust that can then be inhaled once again.

 

Picture: Timbercraft Windows & Doors has been fined as the amount of wood dust on its Essex premises put workers at risk.

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
29th January 2025

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