THE HEALTH and Safety executive has stepped in at several Herefordshire businesses this year.

Improvement notices and prohibition notices were served to a number of businesses across the county after they were found to be breaching regulations.

Tailor-Made Designs Ltd

Manufacturing business Tailor-Made Designs Ltd in Hereford's Twyford Road was the latest to be served notices by the HSE on July 8, for failing to make and give effect to appropriate arrangements to effectively supervise and monitor the implementation of preventative and protective measures at their site.

An HSE inspector said: "I observed machinery guards not correctly adjusted, local exhaust ventilation ducting wood dust not connected to the extraction unit and fork truck operating in close proximity to a delivery driver."

The business had also failed to prevent or adequately control their employees' exposure to a substance hazardous to health, namely wood dust, as it was being dry swept and woodworking machinery was being used without suitable control measures including exhaust ventilation and face fit testing.

The business has dealt with the second issue raised, while it has been given a revised compliance date of October 21 for the first.

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Goldvale Steel Fabrications Ltd

Goldvale Steel Fabrications Ltd in Gooses Foot Business Park was given a notice for failing to ensure that the exposure of their employees to substances hazardous to health, namely welding fume, which is a known carcinogen, was either prevented or adequately controlled on April 6.

The HSE said the business has since complied with the improvement notice.

Barrs Court Engineering

Barrs Court Engineering in Netherwood Road was handed four improvement notices on March 24.

The HSE said the business had failed to put in place appropriate arrangements for the effective planning, organization, control, monitoring and review of the preventative and protective measures in place to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery and to make appropriate arrangements to ensure it had a suitable system of training, assessment and authorisation in place to demonstrate that employees are competent in using or supervising the use of work equipment for the purposes of health and safety.

The business was also told it was using water mixed metal working fluid during high-speed machining, namely in computer numerical controlled lathes and mills, creating a mist which is hazardous to health and can cause occupational asthma but had failed to control exposure to as low a level as was reasonably practicable because machines were not fitted with local exhaust ventilation, exposing workers to mist by cleaning using compressed air gun. There was no time delay in operation prior to opening enclosure doors, so that mist could be extracted and was not present in the operator’s breathing zone.

The HSE said the business had also failed to ensure that employee exposure to stainless steel dust, a substance hazardous to health, had been prevented or adequately controlled, as local exhaust ventilation systems had been marked as unsatisfactory, employees had not been provided with suitable respiratory protective equipment with the correct filters and workers had not been face fit tested to ensure the masks fit them sufficiently to offer adequate protection, giving rise to the risk of ill-health.

The business has since complied with the improvement notice.

William and Matthew Fear

William Fear and Matthew Fear, of Wharton Lane, Leominster, were served immediate prohibition notices on March 22.

The HSE said they had failed to ensure that risks from spraying flammable substances namely spay paints were eliminated or reduced so far as is reasonably practicable

Quickskip

Quickskip, Hereford, was served an improvement notice on March 18.

The business had failed to take all reasonably practicable measures to ensure that the site had been maintained in a condition that is safe and without risks to health, because the interlocking concrete block retaining structures used to contain waste piles were not suitably constructed, were not subject to adequate maintenance and the present condition and alignment pose a risk of serious injury to employees and persons visiting the site from collapse or blocks being struck and knocked off from impact by machinery, the HSE said.

The business was given a compliance date of June 18, with a revised compliance date of August 25.

Gary Dewhirst

Gary Dewhirst, of Pontrilas, was handed a plant protection products notice on March 7 for using a plant protection product such as Roundup or a similar product authorised for professional use when he did not hold a specified certificate for their use in a tractor mounted crop sprayer.

Blackmane Developments Ltd

A building company was handed an immediate prohibition notice on March 1.

The HSE said Blackmane Developments Ltd did not have a sufficient number of exits from scaffolding in the event of a fire at Copper Beech Close in Much Dewchurch.

A renewable energy company was handed two improvement notices on February 4.

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Asgard Renewables Ltd

The notices said Asgard Renewables Ltd had failed to ensure that the risk of fire and explosion through the operation of its anaerobic digester plant and associated equipment had either been eliminated or reduced so far as is reasonably practicable as the recommended actions relating to these matters had not been fully implemented at Fawley, in Herefordshire.

The HSE said the business had failed to ensure that it had taken suitable and sufficient measures to prevent employees falling a distance liable to cause personal injury while working at height.

The business has since complied with the notice.

Patricia and Richard Luther

Patricia Luther, of Gorsley, Ross-on-Wye, was handed an improvement notice on February 1, after the HSE found she had not provided a safe system of work for managing the storage of pallets, with an extensive number of damaged and decaying wooden pallets unsafely stacked in an unsuitable environment over an extensive area, to a height where they had become unstable and presented a risk of collapse to any person entering the land.

Richard Luther, of the same address, was handed an immediate prohibition notice for the same issue on the same date.

The notice has since been complied with.

Marble and Granite Designs

Marble and Granite Designs, in Hereford's Thorn Business Park, was handed four prohibition notices on January 25.

The HSE said the business had failed to ensure that exposure to substances hazardous to health, namely marble and granite dust containing respirable crystalline silica, was prevented or adequately controlled, and had failed to provide health surveillance to employees who were or were liable to be exposed to a substance hazardous to health, namely marble and granite dust containing respirable crystalline silica.

The business had also failed to provide evidence that its pressure system, namely the ABAC horizontal air receiver, was examined by a competent person in accordance with a written scheme, and had failed to take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery, namely the rotating blade of the Brio CNC bridge saw.

The notices have since been complied with.