On Wednesday, 29 April, Garnett Dickinson was fined £1,330 and ordered to pay costs of £2,520 at Rotherham Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to the offence.

The prosecution came after an investigation into cases of dermatitis arising from the use of UV curable lacquers. The lacquer was applied by a machine supplied by American firm Scheffer at the end of a press installed in 2006.

Bristol-based Pulse Printing Products, which provided the lacquer, was also fined £340 and ordered to pay costs of £839 under the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations as part of the incident, which took place in 2006.

American firm Scheffer had also been implicated under the Supply of Machinery Regulations, however this charge was later withdrawn.

Garnett Dickinson operations director David Lightfoot told PrintWeek that the company did have some leakage problems when the machine first went live, and the case centered on the speed of its response, not the response itself.

He said: "We have the most advanced installation in the UK. We take our responsibilities seriously but feel the HSE has let us down as we involved them every step of the way.

"The only people who really benefited from this episode are the lawyers."

HSE Inspector Steve Kay added: "Design problems meant workers came into contact with the lacquers through spillages, yet because of some basic flaws in Garnett Dickinson's management of the situation, workers' health was put at risk by repeated exposure to this irritant substance.

"There was a lack of suitable protective equipment such as gloves and training was insufficient.

"The manufacturer of the machine, Scheffer, failed to supply instructions for filling or cleaning the machine. Although the machine had a CE mark, indicating that it conformed to European legislation, a conformity assessment did not appear to have been carried out."

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