Articles On: Manufacturing

Scottish Chemical Company Fined £100,000 for Causing Workplace Burns

Posted: 8 September 2025

Posted in:  Manufacturing, Scotland, Workplace Accidents Resulting in Injury, Workplace Burns

A chemical company was penalized £100,000 for causing an employee to sustain workplace burns — resulting in permanent scarring — from a steam hose in Motherwell. On October 23, 2019, a 23-year-old employee of Dundas Chemical Company (Mosspark) Limited suffered burns on his back and other body parts while cleaning a process water tank. He had been working at the Omoa Works site in Newarthill for approximately two years prior to the incident. Through its large rendering plant, the company utilizes animal and food industry waste to create proteins, fats,…

Read More

Unnecessary Workplace Practice Sees an Employee’s Fingers Severed by a Bandsaw

Posted: 7 September 2022

Posted in:  Amputation at Work, Contact with Moving Machinery, Manufacturing, North West England, Workplace Accidents Resulting in Injury

An employee who replaced and lubricated a bandsaw – a totally unnecessary practice – has had his fingers severed in an accident at work. The worker had replaced the blade of the saw after it had begun to squeal and emit smoke. Whilst applying the lubricant to the new blade with a cardboard tube of wax as it operated, his hand was drawn into the bandsaw. He lost most of his two middle fingers in the injury. An HSE investigation found that the company – Hanson Springs Ltd – had…

Read More

Employee Found Fatally Injured by Side Loading Forklift Truck

Posted: 13 April 2022

Posted in:  Contact with Moving Machinery, Fatal Accidents at Work, Manufacturing, Workplace Accidents Resulting in Injury, Workplace Personal Injury

A manufacturing company, Cutting Edge Trading Ltd, has been fined after their employee, Mitchell Poutney, was fatally injured when a forklift truck crushed him. An HSE investigation into the fatal injury caused by workplace machinery found that the forks which crushed Poutney were unsupported. They also observed that there was no safe working system in place for unloading pallets from the side-loader forklift truck. Meaning, other employees could potentially suffer from similar accidents at work. As Poutney had been working underneath when the loaded goods caused the forklift truck’s carriage…

Read More

HSE Looks to Bring Down Occupational Lung Disease Rates by Tackling Wood Dust Exposure

Posted: 6 April 2022

Posted in:  Manufacturing, Occupational Asthma, Work-related Illness, Disease & Ill-health, Work-related Lung Disease

The HSE has begun inspecting businesses across the UK that work with wood to reduce the rates of Occupational Lung Disease – caused by wood dust – one of the deadliest industrial diseases affecting UK workers. Woodworking companies, such as those operating sawmills, manufacturing composite wood board and carpenters are all likely to have an inspection in the near future, with a particular focus on those with wood dust exposure. Such exposure tends to lead to a high rate of occupational asthma – as well as aggravated existing asthma –…

Read More

Multiple Broken Arm Bones for Manufacturing Employee Working with Machine

Posted: 17 February 2022

Posted in:  Contact with Moving Machinery, Manufacturing, Shoulders, Arms, Wrists, Hands & Fingers, Wales, Workplace Accidents Resulting in Injury

A manufacturer of self-adhesive vinyl and plastic films, Kay Premium Marking Films Ltd, has been fined after a worker suffered a severely broken arm. His hand was caught by two driven rollers, which pulled him further into the machine, causing significant personal injury. The workplace accident happened in summer 2019, when the employee was trying to clean the rollers with the slitter machine, which had glue on it. Due to a lack of guards on the machine, it was accessible to workers whilst it was running, causing the machine to…

Read More