Furniture maker to the stars banned from sweeping factory with BROOM after inspectors brand it a ‘health hazard’
FURNITURE maker Michael Northcroft has been ordered to stop sweeping his factory floor with a broom by safety inspectors — because they say it is a health hazard.
They insist a broom raises wood dust that can be harmful and want him to fork out for a £2,000 industrial vacuum cleaner to clean up instead.
Defiant Michael, 63, who has used a broom for four decades without any problems, said: “It’s a load of rubbish. My message to the health and safety executives is, ‘Sorry, I’m not doing it. The broom stays’.
“I’ve been managing factories for over 40 years and never have I come across such a joke.
“This isn’t something I can choose to do or not do. I’ve been told I have to ban the use of dry sweeping and must confirm with them by a particular date that I’ve complied with their requirements.
“If I ignore these guys it will get pretty heavy — but I’m up for the fight. I’m going to pick up my broom and get back to work.”
CUSTOMERS INCLUDE THERESA MAY, ADELE AND FOOTIE ACE RONALDO
Michael, whose customers include Theresa May, Adele and Brazilian football legend Ronaldo, was stunned when the Health and Safety Executive ordered a broom ban after inspecting his factory in Leyton, East London.
They said sweeping sawdust was exposing his ten workers to “a substance hazardous to heath, namely airborne wood dust”.
A strongly-worded letter told him to “prohibit” dry-sweeping and “provide evidence of compliance” within weeks.
The letter even included a picture of the dangerous broom.
Michael was charged £154 an hour for the two-hour inspection of his factory earlier this month.
He will continue to be charged the whopping hourly rate during his appeal for the time the HSE takes replying to letters.
Michael said the problem comes down to the HSE not knowing how to use a broom properly.
'THE CONCEPT OF NOT SWEEPING WITH A BROOM IS DAFT'
He added: “They have a nonsense video on their website showing someone using a huge yard broom with stiff bristles to sweep up a massive pile of sawdust.
“The bristles are too long and they’re lifting the broom off the floor, kicking up dust.
“Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows brooms should be pushed and kept on the floor. Use a nice short one with soft bristles — just like mine.
“Using commercial vacuums means power cables will be running everywhere, no doubt causing a bigger risk than my little old broomstick ever poses. This is the sort of rot that makes companies move manufacturing abroad.”
The Sun Says
THE meddling bureaucrats of the Health and Safety Executive have come up with their most ridiculous ruling yet after they told a master furniture designer to stop sweeping out his factory with a broom.
Brooms a health hazard? Quick, alert the families who have used them for generations. It’s this sort of nanny-knows-best, fearful attitude that gives health and safety a terrible reputation.
Let’s sweep away this cowardice and get a bit more common sense.
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The HSE said: “While it is simply not the case that HSE has banned the use of broomsticks, companies are being encouraged to use one of the many safer and more efficient types of equipment where the health of workers is better protected.
“Prolonged exposure to high levels of wood dust is known to be one of the direct causes of the high number of cases of occupational asthma and nasal cancer suffered by people in the woodworking industry.
Ken Veal, secretary of the British Woodcarvers Association, said: “The concept of not sweeping with a broom is daft.”
SWEEP OF HISTORY
BROOMS have played an important role for centuries.
Sweeping up with a long-handled brush is mentioned in the New Testament and ancient Chinese carvings showing a man holding a broom date to around 25AD.
The first written reference to witches on broomsticks was in 1453. Harry Potter famously flies on one for Quidditch, below. Angela Lansbury gets airborne the same way in 1971 Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
In TV’s Only Fools And Horses roadsweeper Trigger claims to have had the same broom for 20 years. He then admits it has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles.
In the Indian religion of Jainism, in which non-violence is a sacred principle, monks and nuns carry small brooms so they can gently brush aside ants and small animals to ensure they do not tread on them.
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