Inadequate guarding leads to disfigurement and £12,000 fine.

Paulamar Company Ltd. a  Kirkintilloch manufacturer of foam plastics and rubber materials was fined £12,000 after a lack of guarding lead to a teenage worker being permanently disfigured. 

The circumstances were:

• The accident occurred on an adhesive backing machine with inadequate safety guarding.
• On 28 January 2013, a 19-year-old worker was feeding flat foam sheets into the adhesive machine which had rollers with unguarded in-running nips.
• One sheet curled up before it reached the rollers. 
• The worker used his right hand to flatten the sheet but it stuck to the adhesive and was taken into the rollers.
• The stop bar on the machine was hit and another employee manually moved the rollers up off his hand.   
• He was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where doctors found he had suffered a broken knuckle on his middle finger and a broken index finger on his right hand, had deep lacerations to the palm of his hand with swelling and bruising to the back of his hand. 
• He has been left with two visible scars and a burn mark on the back of his right hand and was off work for six months.