In the second of our recurring series spotlighting the health dangers in different industries, we cast an eye to the hazards in jewellery manufacturing.
Common goldsmith health hazards
Jewellery-making is a profession rife with dangers in the workplaces that staff need to be guarded against.
The occupational hazards plaguing jewellery workers include:
- Heating and melting down gold
- Cutting
- Soldering
- Polishing
- Along with the potentially dangerous dusts and fumes given off by these energy-intensive processes.
Amongst the latter, specific hazardous substances include:
- Borax powder: used commonly in goldsmithing work, this can easily escape into the air and be breathed in by goldsmiths, causing everything from headaches and dizziness to tremors and passing out
- Rhodium plating: made up of highly toxic and carcinogenic compounds able to irritate the skin and eyes when not properly extracted in their raw form.
For these reasons and more, workplace jewellery safety for goldsmiths is of the utmost importance. With this in mind, we talked to a member of the workshop team at one of our clients, the award-winning Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery.
Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery case study
The 2020 UK Bespoke Jeweller of the Year and 2021 UK Independent Jewellery Retailer of the Year 2021, Harriet Kelsall Bespoke Jewellery is one of the best in its field anywhere in the south of England.
Established in 1998 at founder Harriet Kelsall’s kitchen table, the company now employs around 40 people at three prestigious locations in Cambridge, on London’s Primrose Hill, and at the company’s home base in Hertfordshire.
It’s at the latter site, a beautiful converted Tudor barn, where the brand’s workshop can be found – and where the company recently decided a new set of safety equipment was needed.
The problem
“We were due a workshop revamp so we decided to make it as clean and healthy an environment as we can,” says Harriet Kelsall workshop manager Ryan Chester. “In our workshop we found a lot of polishing dust was getting in the air and settling on everything, so dust and fume extraction was a big thing we wanted to get covered.
“We found VODEX online and I’d already seen a few images with goldsmiths who had VODEX boxes under their benches, so the brand was known to us. Then talking to [VODEX co-founder] Paul was very easy and helpful as well,” says Ryan. “That was a big part of the appeal of working with them too.
The VODEX solution
“We talked to a lot of companies about protecting against goldsmith health hazards but their solutions all seemed to be large structures where you switch on a central unit and extraction for every bench gets turned on automatically,” continues Ryan. “VODEX offered us a different solution with smaller, more portable units able to be moved around where we want and each switched on independently.
“Our VODEX VX extraction units are fixed in place at the moment, but if we unplug one we can plug something else in its place, it makes it more versatile and gives us the freedom to move the workshop around if we need to.
“Another part of VODEX’s solution for goldsmith health hazards was specialist filters designed to capture fumes from all of the substances we work with,” explains Ryan. “Standard available filters didn’t really deal with things like rhodium plating, but VODEX were able to commission a special acid filter to extract it. Now we regularly pull out the trays and see all of the black bits of dust they’ve caught. It’s amazing seeing how well they units are working!
The result
“The VX units have helped us with another problem too,” says Ryan. “Although we couldn’t see the fumes, before we got the new units our fire alarm kept going off – which was pretty frustrating! Now, whenever we melt gold with the VX units on, the alarm doesn’t go off, which just adds that little extra reassurance that they’re definitely doing something.”
“Our goldsmiths’ health comes first, and because they’re individual units everyone gets their own – we don’t need to turn all the units on at once if only one goldsmith is working. So it’s actually helping us save electricity too! Changing the filter takes two clicks, and is really easy to do as well… we’re basically just really happy with what VODEX provided us. I’d definitely point anyone in the jewellery-making business to VODEX. From Paul’s expertise to the service they gave us and the end product, it’s all been brilliant.”
Do you need fume and dust extraction for your jewellery business?
Of all the occupational hazards plaguing jewellery workers, fumes and dust can be the one that’s easy to overlook – and sometimes the trickiest to get right.
Our team are experts in building custom solutions for any kind of business, including ones in the jewellery sector. If you have questions about building your own solution, get in touch – we’ll be happy to help.
