A firm manufacturing stone kitchen worktops has been fined £60,000 plus costs for repeated failures to protect workers from exposure to hazardous silica dust.
In a statement yesterday (22 May), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said its investigators visited Inova Stone Ltd nine times in six years “and found little or no improvement across several areas of concern”.
Inspectors were “stunned” after visiting the company’s Slough premises in May 2021, when employees told them that “no one is in charge of health and safety”, the HSE said.
“That visit had come about after concerns had been raised about unsafe working practices.
“Inspectors soon saw the complacency for themselves, after identifying several breaches of health and safety law, including a failure to control exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS),” the HSE said.
“The workshop floor was caked in dust (pictured), suggesting an absence of effective controls.”
HSE inspectors also found Inova Stone “routinely allowed [workers] to use unguarded machinery” and had not stored heavy stone slabs safely, the statement added.
As a result of the inspection, the company was served with four improvement notices.
The HSE revealed that “similar action” had been taken in 2017.
Its statement said that Inova Stone, of Willow Road, Colnbrook, Slough, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act.
The firm also pleaded guilty to three charges of failure to comply with an improvement notice, the inspectorate said.
Inova Stone was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £7,363 in costs at Staines Magistrates Court on Tuesday (20 May).
People who cut, drill, grind or polish stone are at risk of breathing in RCS, which the HSE described as “invisibly fine and can reach deep inside the lung”. It can cause permanent lung damage before symptoms develop.
“Over time, breathing in these silica particles can cause irreversible, life-changing and often fatal respiratory conditions such as silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer,” the HSE said.
The watchdog describes silica dust as the second-biggest risk to construction workers after asbestos.
Construction News reported last month that workers are being exposed to even higher levels of silica dust through the use of artificial stone, a popular new material, leading them to contract silicosis faster and at a younger age than ever before.
After the hearing, HSE principal inspector Karen Morris said: “Inova Stone Ltd failed to comply with legal notices requiring them to make improvements, and repeatedly showed a lack of commitment to managing health and safety.
“After being provided with advice and guidance over several years, the company had plenty of opportunities to comply with the law, yet they consistently failed to do so.
“The fine imposed should send a clear message to employers that the risks from working with engineered stone must be taken extremely seriously.”
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Ben Vogel