Hereford Galvanizers Ltd, of Westfields Trading Estate, Hereford, was fined £13,000 and ordered to pay costs of £6,564 after pleading guilty, at Hereford Magistrates Court, to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

On 25 June 2006, an employee was helping with galvanising operations where various metal items were being dipped in a bath of molten zinc. He was splashed with 450-degree molten zinc when the hooks suspending two steel joists, each weighing approximately 1165Kg (over 1 tonne), gave way causing the joists to plunge back into the dip bath. Part of his overalls dissolved and he sustained 12% burns, mainly to his chest and upper arms.

Speaking after the case, HSE's inspector Paul Humphries said:

"It is important that employers are not only aware of their legal duties to take care of the health and safety of employees but also of the need to conduct adequate risk assessments, which they then act upon. In this particular instance the work was extremely hazardous. Even the most basic risk assessment would have highlighted the need to supply clothing specifically designed to cope with such high temperature molten metal. Routine assessments and maintenance of the lifting equipment may also have shown that the lifting hooks had become inadequate to support that weight."