A wood supplier has been fined £40,000 for failing to protect its workers from exposure to wood dust, while a kitchen worktop manufacturer has been fined £60,000 after it repeatedly failed to protect workers from exposure to hazardous dust.

Fakenham-based Nat Pal Limited was visited by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in April 2023. Dust was found scattered across the floor, and the inspection identified failings in the company’s control measures to prevent exposure of their employees to wood dust and enforcement action was taken.

The HSE investigation also identified ongoing failings in the company’s control measures and found that it had failed to take appropriate precautions despite previous enforcement on the same issues dating back to 2015.

Breathing in wood dust excessively can cause asthma and nasal cancer. Guidance on working in the woodworking industry is available and an inspection-led campaign to protect workers continues.

That guidance states that employers must take effective measures to prevent exposure of their employees to wood dust. This will normally be by:

• Providing and maintaining local exhaust ventilation systems;
• Having appropriate face-fit tested respiratory protection.
• Carrying out health surveillance to monitor the respiratory health of employees.

Nat Pal Limited of Cummings Road, Tattersett Business Park, Fakenham, pleaded guilty to a charge contrary to Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act, 1974, in that it failed to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, as it failed to manage the risks created by operating a wood-working business. The company was fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,072 at a hearing at Norwich Magistrates’ Court on 16 May 2025.

Nat Pal is an international wood import and wood export company, that supplies raw wood materials and wood products worldwide for a variety of industries and factories, including the supply of wooden products such as solid wood beds, single and bunk wooden beds, wooden chairs for, kindergarten, schools, and different companies.

After the hearing, HSE inspector Natalie Prince said “The fine imposed on Nat Pal Limited should underline that HSE take a failure to protect the health of employees extremely seriously.

“To make matters worse, this company had been visited previously and had failed to take steps to protect its workers. We will not hesitate to take action against companies which fail to do all they can.”

In another case, inspectors from the HSE visited Inova Stone Ltd nine times over a six year period, and found little or no improvement across several areas of concern.

HSE inspectors were left stunned after visiting the company’s premises in Slough in May 2021 when employees told them that ‘no-one is in charge of health and safety’. 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 workshop floor was caked in dust, suggesting an absence of effective controls.

Stone worktops are becoming increasingly popular in home kitchens. Processing stone, including engineered stone, by cutting, chiselling and polishing, can create dust that contains airborne particle that carry RCS.

RCS dust is invisibly fine and can reach deep inside the lung. It can cause permanent lung damage before symptoms develop. Stone workers are at risk of exposure to airborne particles of stone dust containing RCS, with the risk higher when exposure is prolonged and uncontrolled. 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.

As well as failing to protect workers from the potentially deadly dust, HSE inspectors also found Inova Stone Ltd routinely allowed them to use unguarded machinery. In addition, the company also had heavy stone slabs not being stored safely, putting workers at risk of serious injury.

As a result of the inspection, the company was served with four improvement notices, with the resulting HSE investigation revealing similar action had also been taken four years earlier, in 2017.

Inova Stone Ltd of Willow Road, Colnbrook, Slough, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, as well as three charges for failure to comply with an improvement notice. The company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £7,363 costs at Staines Magistrates Court on 20 May 2025.

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.

“We were stunned when employees told us that ‘no-one was in charge of 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.”