Press release

Skip manufacturer fined £30,000 after failing to protect workers from carcinogenic fumes.

A Lancashire manufacturer of skips and metal containers has been fined £30,000 after repeatedly failing to protect its workers from carcinogenic welding fumes at its site in Thornton-Cleveleys.

Despite being served with an Enforcement Notice by HSE inspectors on two occasions, Samson Containers Ltd continued to carry out mild steel welding without adequate control measures to protect their employees. Inspectors also found the company failed to meet it duty to monitor the health of workers exposed to high levels of noise – risking long-term harm.

During a visit to the site on 29 August 2024, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors identified several issues including high-intensity welding without local exhaust ventilation (LEV), inadequate welfare facilities, and a lack of assessment of noise risk, along with other health and safety issues on site. Multiple improvement notices were served.

Inspectors returned on multiple occasions to assess compliance, but found that the company had done nothing to comply with the notices relating to welding fume control and health surveillance for noise. This failure left employees exposed to carcinogenic welding fumes and at risk of becoming seriously ill. The company also failed to provide health surveillance to monitor the hearing of their employees exposed to high levels of noise throughout the shift.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer advises that exposure to mild steel welding fumes can cause lung cancer and possibly kidney cancer in humans. To control the risk, suitable ventilation must be present. Where this ventilation does not adequately control exposure, respiratory protective equipment (RPE) should be provided. Welding should not be undertaken without these control measures in place. This is applicable to welding indoors and outdoors.

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, Regulation 9 (1) requires employers to provide employees with health surveillance involving hearing checks where they are regularly exposed to high levels of noise or where employees are particularly at risk e.g. pre‑existing hearing loss or sensitivity to noise. Health surveillance helps employers to identify early signs of hearing damage, prevent further deterioration by prompting action, and making sure that their noise controls measures are working effectively.

The company Samson Containers Limited was found guilty at Warrington Magistrates’ Court of failing to comply with two Improvement Notices contrary to Section 33(1)(g) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £4571 in costs along with a victim surcharge of £2000 on 16 June 2026.

HSE Inspector Gemma Feerick said:

“This was a company that put its workers at risk of serious, long-term health conditions because it repeatedly failed to get the basics right – even when expressly served with notices to put proper controls in place.

“These fines should send a clear message that HSE takes failure to comply with enforcement notices extremely seriously and will act against companies and individuals who fail to protect the health and safety of their employees.”

This HSE prosecution was brought by HSE Enforcement Lawyer Julian White and Paralegal Officer Stephen Grabe.

Further Information

  1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We are dedicated to protecting people and places, and helping everyone lead safer and healthier lives.
  2. More information about the legislation referred to in this case is available.
  3. Further details on the latest HSE news releases is available.
  4. Relevant guidance can be found here:
  1. HSE does not pass sentences, set guidelines or collect any fines imposed. Relevant sentencing guidelines must be followed unless the court is satisfied that it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.  The sentencing guidelines for health and safety offences can be found here.

Day of action in Manchester city centre

A team of inspectors from Britain’s workplace regulator are heading to Manchester city centre as part of its priority to tackle ill-health on construction sites.

The 12 inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will head to the city next Tuesday (21 October). They will turn up without warning at various businesses and sites to look at their management of health and safety risks, with particular emphasis on the following:

These inspections in Manchester are part of 14,000 HSE is completing nationwide during the current financial year, with around 8,000 of those focusing on health.

HSE principal inspector Kevin Jones, one of those leading the team, said: “We’ll be checking that businesses have the right measures in place to ensure health risks are being managed and that workers are being kept safe.

“Manchester is home to some of the biggest construction projects in the country, however all sizes of sites will be inspected.

“By its nature, construction is a high hazard industry. It can be noisy and dusty, with people often working at height and around heavy machinery and vehicles.”

The construction industry has higher-than-average rates of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and injury rates. Previous HSE inspections around Great Britain have also found that three-quarters of noisy workplaces lacked essential knowledge on maintaining hearing protection equipment. Workers in skilled trades are also at particular risk of discovering and disturbing asbestos when working on properties built before 2000.

“These inspections are really important in HSE’s mission to protect people at work,” Kevin Jones added.

“As well as checking on companies, we want to work with them, explaining what they should be doing to get everything right.

“We hope that our presence in the city next week will reassure both the public and those working in the industry, that we will do all we can to ensure people go home safely at the end of the day.

“We need to see that there are good control measures in place and that the health and safety of workers is at the top of the agenda for everyone.

“We look forward to working with site managers and employers to ensure they are doing what’s required.”

More information on what employers should be doing can be found at www.hse.gov.uk.

HSE’s campaign site also has simple, practical advice available for:

 

Further information:

  1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. We are dedicated to protecting people and places, and helping everyone lead safer and healthier lives.
  2. More information about the legislation referred to in this case is available.
  3. Further details on the latest HSE news releases is available.
  4. HSE does not pass sentences, set guidelines or collect any fines imposed. Relevant sentencing guidelines must be followed unless the court is satisfied that it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.  The sentencing guidelines for health and safety offences can be found here.

Getting personal hearing protection right: what really matters

Personal hearing protection is the last line of defence between your workers and permanent hearing damage. But poor management turns every pound spent on earmuffs and earplugs into wasted money.

“This isn’t about blame – it’s about recognising a key challenge,” explains Chris Steel, HSE’s Principal Specialist Inspector.

Personal protective equipment sits at the bottom of the hierarchy of control because it needs constant attention. Unlike engineering controls that work automatically, hearing protection requires ongoing information, instruction, training and supervision to stay effective.

From our inspections across workplaces in Great Britain, we’ve identified the crucial questions every employer should ask about their hearing protection programme. Get this right before inspectors visit, and you’ll be protecting your workforce properly.

Condition: is your protection actually protecting?

Hearing protection only works when it’s in good condition. Earmuffs with stretched headbands, missing foam padding, damaged seals or cracked cups give false security rather than real protection. These defects create gaps that let through harmful noise, potentially causing permanent hearing loss.

Single-use earplugs don’t work if workers treat them as reusable. Once removed – for breaks, conversations or toilet visits – they must be thrown away. Brief removal compromises their integrity and putting them back rarely achieves the same protective seal.

Reusable plugs come with issues of their own. During one site visit, Steel’s team met a worker still using moulded earplugs he’d been given at 18 – he was 43 when they spoke to him. Materials degrade over time, ear canals change, and effectiveness drops substantially. Do your workers know replacement schedules? More importantly, do they know how and where to get fresh protection when needed?

Use: making protection accessible

“Hearing protection is useless sitting in storage whilst workers operate noisy equipment,” Steel emphasises. Timing matters: protection must go on before exposure begins and stay on throughout the hazardous period.

Think about placement strategically. Steel has seen one factory manager leave an inspector at the entrance whilst he walked 100 metres to fetch his earplugs, then walked back before inserting them – defeating the purpose entirely. Put supplies where workers need them, when they need them.

Proper fitting: the devil in the detail

Even premium hearing protection fails when worn incorrectly. Earplugs need clean hands for hygienic insertion and proper technique to achieve effective sealing. Workers must understand how to straighten their ear canals during insertion – a skill requiring demonstration and practice.

Earmuffs seem foolproof until you see them worn over hats, hoods or hair accessories. These seemingly minor problems create significant gaps in protection. Helmet-mounted systems add complexity: you can’t assume compatibility between helmet and earmuff systems just because components physically connect.

Individual differences matter enormously. Some workers can’t use standard earplugs due to narrow ear canals or other physical factors. Regulations require employers to offer suitable alternatives, not force unsuitable solutions. Regular observation helps identify workers struggling with proper fitting, often showing the need for different protection types rather than more training.

Performance: matching protection to need

Effective hearing protection requires technical matching between workplace noise levels and protection capabilities. During one site visit, one employee had chosen earplugs based solely on their football team’s colours – hardly acceptable performance criteria.

Understanding your workplace noise levels in decibels provides the foundation for proper specification. Each protection type has a Single Number Rating (SNR) showing its noise reduction capability. HSE’s calculator tools and guidance help match protection performance to actual requirements.

Crucially, adequate protection shouldn’t create new hazards. Over-protection can stop workers hearing essential warning alarms, creating safety risks that outweigh the benefits. Once workers wear hearing protection, check they can still detect critical safety signals.

The CUFF approach: systematic assessment

Managing hearing protection effectively requires systematic attention to four key elements – remember CUFF:

Condition: Regular inspection ensures protection remains physically capable of doing its job.

Use: Proper timing and accessibility enable consistent protection during hazardous activities.

Fit the ear: Correct wearing technique maximises the protection potential of well-chosen equipment.

Fit for purpose: Technical matching between hazard levels and protection capabilities ensures adequate safety without creating new risks.

Moving forward

Personal hearing protection demands active management rather than passive provision. The administrative burden reflects the serious consequences of failure: once hearing damage occurs, it can’t be reversed.

Next time you walk around your workplace, think CUFF when observing hearing protection use. These real examples from our inspections show how easily well-intentioned programmes can fail without proper attention to detail.

The investment in proper hearing protection management pays dividends in reduced injury rates, improved compliance and enhanced workplace culture. Most significantly, it preserves something irreplaceable: your workers’ ability to hear.

Noise: Management of exposure in the workplace – 28 October 2025

Protect your workforce from noise-induced hearing loss with HSE’s one-day training course on 28 October 2025 in Buxton, covering risk assessment and compliance with the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. Essential for health and safety practitioners, managers, and supervisors responsible for managing workplace noise risks.

“Serious gaps” found in protecting workers from excessive noise

Three-quarters of noisy workplaces lacked essential knowledge on maintaining hearing protection equipment, inspections have found.  

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) most recent inspection campaign has identified significant failings in workplace hearing protection, uncovering issues with employee training and equipment management. 

One in four workplaces had noise levels requiring mandatory hearing protection, placing crucial responsibilities on employers to ensure proper provision and management of protective equipment. However, inspections revealed concerning gaps in implementation. 

At high-noise workplaces, more than 75% of employees lacked essential knowledge about storing hearing protection, checking for damage, or reporting equipment faults to employers. Nearly two-thirds (63%) had not received guidance on the critical importance of wearing protection continuously during exposure to harmful noise levels. 

Training deficiencies were particularly evident, with 80% of employees receiving no instruction on proper wearing techniques, including avoiding interference from hats and hoods, keeping hair clear of earmuffs, or ensuring compatibility with other personal protective equipment such as hard hats and eye protection. 

Most significantly, 95% of employers had failed to verify whether workers wearing hearing protection could still detect vital warning signals, including fire alarms and vehicle reversing alerts. 

Chris Steel, HSE’s Principal Specialist Inspector, said: “The gaps that we found in implementation are serious. They place an added risk to workers of excessive exposure to noise when they may believe they are being protected.  

“If your defence against workplace noise is to give your workers hearing protection then you need to check that it works. How confident are you that the hearing protection you have supplied is in good order, is being worn when it should be, how it should be, and that it is not stopping your workers from hearing warning signals?” 

To address these issues, HSE is promoting the CUFF checking system to help employers assess hearing protection effectiveness. 

The acronym covers Condition (equipment integrity), Use (proper deployment when needed), Fit the ear (correct wearing), and Fit for purpose (appropriate specification). 

HSE specialists will deliver guidance at industry events and webinars, providing practical advice on implementing effective hearing protection programmes and using the CUFF system to safeguard workers from noise-induced hearing damage. 

Read a feature piece from HSE’s Principal Specialist Inspector Chris Steel.