HSE fines stone company after inspectors discover workshop floor caked in dust

When HSE inspectors visited Inova Stone Ltd’s premises in May 2021, they were stunned to hear from employees that ‘no-one is in charge of health and safety’. The floor was covered in so much dust, workers’ boot prints were visible. 

As well as failing to protect workers from the potentially deadly dust, HSE inspectors also found Inova Stone Ltd routinely allowed workers to use unguarded machinery.

Heavy stone slabs were also not being stored safely, putting workers at risk of serious injury.     

Inspectors from HSE visited Inova Stone Ltd nine times over a six-year period and served the company four improvement notices, but found “little or no improvement across several areas of concern.”

The workshop floor showing boot and shoe prints clearly visible in the dangerous dust. Photograph: HSE

Inova Stone Ltd of Willow Road, Colnbrook, Slough, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act, as well as three charges for failure to comply with an improvement notice. The company was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £7,363 costs at Staines Magistrates Court on 20 May.

Investigating HSE Principal Inspector Karen Morris said: “Inova Stone Ltd failed to comply with legal notices requiring them to make improvements and repeatedly showed a lack of commitment to managing health and safety.

“We were stunned when employees told us that ‘no-one was in charge of health and safety’.

“After being provided with advice and guidance over several years, the company had plenty of opportunities to comply with the law, yet they consistently failed to do so.

“The fine imposed should send a clear message to employers that the risks from working with engineered stone must be taken extremely seriously.”

Stone worktops are becoming increasingly popular for use in kitchens. Processing stone, including engineered stone, by cutting, chiselling and polishing, can create respirable crystalline silica (RCS) dust. The recent growth of the industry has been linked to a spate of cases of silicosis in younger workers.

RCS dust is invisibly fine and can reach deep inside the lung, causing permanent lung damage before symptoms develop. Stone workers are at risk of exposure to airborne particles of stone dust containing RCS, with the risk higher when exposure is prolonged and uncontrolled.

HSE guidance for installing stone worktops here