Beehive manufacturer EH Thorne has been fined and ordered to pay costs after one worker injured his hand in a cutting machine and colleagues were exposed to potentially harmful dust.
The company had been served with two prohibition and eight improvement notices to act on advice it received from the Health & Safety Executive, Skegness magistrates were told.
An employee injured his hand attempting to remove wood that had jammed in the cutter block of a running woodworking machine. A number of workers were also routinely exposed to western red cedar wood dust, which can lead to long-term respiratory problems, the court heard.
Thorne, of Wragby, Lincolnshire, was fined £12,500 with £5,000 costs.
HSE inspector Dr Ian Ellison said: “The hand injury and exposure to harmful wood dust could have been avoided if the company had acted upon advice it had been given only months earlier at a dedicated woodworking event.”
