Two laboratory staff members at Cardiff University have been left with lifelong breathing conditions after the university failed to protect them from animal allergens in its research facilities for a period spanning 15 years. The university was fined £280,000 and ordered to pay nearly £12,000 in costs at Cardiff Magistrates Court on 30 April after admitting it had breached health and safety legislation. One of the two affected workers can no longer continue in their job. The other described struggling to breathe during ordinary daily activities including walking upstairs or holding a conversation.
As reported by the BBC the Health and Safety Executive found that from 2008 to 2025 Cardiff University failed to identify and put in place adequate controls to prevent workers being exposed to animal allergens in its laboratory animal facilities. The HSE described a 15-year failure as truly concerning.
One of the workers told the HSE their breathing had become terrible and that walking any distance had become a serious challenge. Going upstairs was described as really difficult. They said they now rely on a steroid inhaler, a nasal spray and a bronchodilator throughout the day. Their lung function had declined by a third and they had been formally diagnosed with both occupational asthma and occupational rhinitis. They said they become breathless during long conversations and could no longer walk and talk simultaneously.
HSE inspector Janet Hensey said occupational asthma is a recognised work-related disease with potentially disabling consequences and that the duration of the failure at Cardiff University made it particularly serious.
Cardiff University, located in Wales, issued an apology after the court hearing. The university said it was deeply sorry and acknowledged that during the relevant period it had not always met its responsibilities to adequately protect employees from allergen exposure in one of its animal facilities. It added that the issues identified had already been addressed following an HSE improvement notice and that staff currently working in its buildings should not have concerns about their safety.
The case highlights a workplace health failure that is easy to overlook precisely because it develops slowly. Occupational asthma does not announce itself suddenly. It builds over months and years of repeated exposure. By the time a worker receives a formal diagnosis the damage is already done and in most cases it is permanent. The lung function that the affected Cardiff employee lost cannot be recovered.
Universities operate research environments that involve animal contact across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The risks of allergen exposure in those settings are well established and the legal obligation to control those risks has existed for many years. The fact that Cardiff University failed to act on those obligations for a decade and a half before the HSE intervened is the detail that makes this case more than a straightforward regulatory breach. Two people are now living with permanent health conditions that the institution had the knowledge and the means to prevent.
