The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has fined and prosecuted a company that admitted exposing its workers to hazardous fumes from soldering equipment.

Employees at Turbo Power Systems’ plant in Gateshead had been working for up to five-and-a-half hours a day with rosin solder flux, the fumes of which are known to cause asthma.

The exposure occurred between May 2007 and May 2008 and many employees began to suffer problems with their respiratory health.

As a result, the HSE took the company to court for breaches of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. It was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay costs after admitting to safety failures.

HSE inspector Andrea Robbins said it had been "entirely foreseeable" that inappropriate risk assessment and control of chemicals would put the workforce at risk.

Rosin is a natural product which comes from pine sap. Fumes from rosin solder flux are a well-known cause of occupational asthma.