Dickensian boss faces possible loss of liberty for lead-poisoning crimes

摘要

The owner of an alloy firm has received a suspended prison sentence for failures to protect his workers from lead. All three of his employees were poisoned as a result of the failures. The poisonings occurred at the premises of LDB Light Alloys in Boughton, Nottinghamshire, where it made lead sheeting from molten lead. The firm, which was owned by Laurence Brown, operated a mini-furnace inside a converted Nissen hut. The three workers' tasks included scraping off the solid impurities ("dross") in a crucible containing the molten lead and pouring the excess into containers.