Lincolnshire Stained Glass has been fined £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of the same amount after an employee was found to have suffered severe lead poisoning.
Lincoln Magistrates’ Court was told that employee David Doherty, now 26, had been suffering from illnesses for a number of years prior to his diagnosis in October 2011. Mr Doherty had seven times the normal amount of lead in his blood.
The Court heard that the lead poisoning was a result of five years work restoring windows which involved techniques such as soldering, wire brushing and wire wooling.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found that David Sear, sole owner of Lincolnshire Stained Glass, had failed to provide controls to protect six workers from lead.
Mr Sear had been advised to do so in 2005 when blood tests carried out on the advice of the HSE revealed that workers were at significant risk of lead poisoning.
Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector Lorraine Nicholls said: “Mr Sear is the owner of a specialist business that has been operating for some 30 years. He had no excuse for turning a blind eye to the known risks of this profession and neglecting the required safety standards to protect his workforce.”
The investigation revealed that the appropriate dust extraction systems were missing and that workers were not wearing masks when soldering. As a result, they were put at unnecessary risks from lead fumes.
Ms Nicholls added: “Employees’ exposure to lead would have been greatly reduced with proper controls such as adequate extraction systems, suitable hygiene arrangements, personal protective equipment, air monitoring and medical surveillance – all measures Mr Sear knew he should have had in place.
“The instruction and training that Mr Doherty received also left a lot to be desired. Had he and his colleagues been aware of the risks of working with lead. Mr Doherty’s condition could have been diagnosed a lot sooner and not been left to worsen. It was disappointing that Mr Sear did not even recognise the symptoms.”
David Sear pleaded guilty to breaching the Control of Lead at Work Regulations SI 2002/2676 between 16th January 2010 and 13th October 2011 for failing to control the risk of lead exposure.
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