Company pays out GBP 50,000 over free silica

A firm has been ordered to pay £50,000 for health and safety breaches after using a banned substance to clean vehicles.

Thomson Sandblast has received a £26,000 fine plus costs after pleading guilty to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002.

It used free silica in its dry sand blasting, which is prohibited due to the risk the substance poses to workers’ health.

Principal inspector for the Health and Safety Executive Dorothy Shaw claims the company's actions put its employees at risk of silicosis, a pulmonary disease.

She says businesses have a duty to avoid using hazardous substances or, where this is impractical, to implement effective safety measures to control the risk.

"Vehicles were being dry blasted using what was suspected to be sand in a building that was not fully enclosed or had a filtered extraction unit," she adds.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, quartz is an example of a free silica.