Tissue maker fined after employee injures fingers

AN Oldham tissue manufacturer has been fined for safety failings after an employee lost the tops of two of his fingers as he tried to clean machinery.

Rose Tissues, which processes and prints kitchen roll and toilet paper at its plant on Sefton Street in Hollinwood, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive  following the incident in May 2012.

Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard the 35-year-old employee from Oldham had been trying to stop paper sticking to a seven-metre-wide print roller by attempting to clean it with a cloth while the machine was operating.

As he did this, the cloth became trapped between two rotating rollers, dragging in his right hand with it. He spent four days in hospital undergoing surgery to his hand, but lost the tops of two fingers.

The HSE investigation found two of the guards on the machine, which should have prevented such incidents  had been removed at least a year before the incident. In addition, electronic safety locks and cut-out switches had been deliberately by-passed to allow the machine to carry on running.

In addition, no formal checks had been carried out on the machine to make sure the guards were in place. Following the injury, the guards were found in a storage container in the factory and reinstated.

Rose Tissues was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £8,000 in prosecution costs after pleading guilty to a breach of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 by failing to prevent access to the dangerous parts of the machine.

Commenting on the case, HSE Inspector Stuart Kitchingman said:

“The guards were fitted to the machine for a reason and there’s simply no excuse for two of them to be missing for over a year. Rose Tissues had deliberately over-ridden essential electrical locks and cut out switches to allow the machines to run without the guards.

“The risk of workers’ hands being dragged in between two rollers is well known in the printing industry, but the company failed to carry out checks on its machines to make sure guards were in place.

“As a result, an employee has suffered an injury to his hand that will affect him for the rest of his life.”