Businesses are being encouraged to refrain from using broomsticks to clean up dust in the workplace because of the health and safety implications for employees.

But the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has refuted claims it told one business owner to ban the use of brooms entirely.

It comes after an east London furniture maker said he was told by safety inspectors that he could not use the cleaning tool to sweep up wood dust in his factory.

Wood dust can lead to occupational asthma and nasal cancer for employees in the woodworking industry, according to the HSE.

Carpenters and joiners  are four times more likely to get asthma compared with other UK workers.

The HSE has more information about wood dust and the associated hazards

Michael Northcroft, whose clients supposedly include Theresa May and Adele, said he was advised sweeping sawdust was exposing his workers to “a substance hazardous to health, namely airborne wood dust”. He has 10 members of staff.

But he said he planned to ignore the advice to switch from a broom to an industrial vacuum, calling it a “load of rubbish”.

“My message to the health and safety executives is ‘Sorry, I’m not doing it. The broom stays’,” Mr Northcroft, whose factory is in Leyton, told The Sun.

He claimed he was told he must confirm he had banned the use of dry-sweeping by a particular date by informing the inspectors.

“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,” said the 63-year-old.

The HSE told i it had not banned the use of broomsticks in the workplace but was advocating for safer and more efficient tools.

“We’ve advised this employer on how to better protect his workers’ health, such as improving his vacuum filters to significantly reduce dust exposure,” the Government agency said of Mr Northcroft’s claims.

“Work-related lung disease accounts for 12,000 deaths every year. We want all workers to go home healthy and avoid exposure to wood dust and its life-changing consequences.”

The HSE actively discourages using brushes and compressed air lines for cleaning up as these methods “produce extremely high exposure levels of dust often in excess of the required legal exposure limits”.

The body said its inspectors encouraged companies to reduce exposure to dust by installing suction pipes “that use existing dust extraction to vacuum up dust”.

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