HSE Warns Exposing Untrained Workers To Asbestos Will Be Penalised, UK

Main Category: Asbestos / Mesothelioma
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 22 Jan 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning that firms exposing workers to asbestos would be penalised.

It added that electrical contracting companies and other building and refurbishment trades must provide suitable asbestos awareness training to employees or face prosecution.

This move follows the HSE prosecution of Scriven Electrical Contractors Ltd of Cornwallis Road, West Bromwich for failing to ensure that adequate information, instruction and training was given to its employees.

The court heard that an electrician employed by Scriven installed three heat detectors and associated cabling in a commercial sized kitchen and boiler room of premises in Barclay Road, Smethwick. Although the ceiling tiles contained 5-50% brown asbestos no asbestos awareness training was given by his employer prior to commencement of the work, despite a legal requirement.

Scriven Electrical Contractors Ltd was, on 19 January, 2009, under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £2,757 in costs, by West Bromwich Magistrates for breaching Regulation 10(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

Speaking after the case, HSE inspector John Healy said:
"Scrivens should have known of the dangers and the legal requirement to give sufficient training to protect employees from exposure to asbestos because 98% of their work involves the risk of encountering asbestos.

"Those responsible for employees ordinarily have a legal duty to protect their health and safety but, in the case of asbestos those involved in building or refurbishment must know that any disturbance of such a dangerous material should only be completed by trained workers."

Electricians, plasterers, plumbers and carpenters are all at risk of exposure to asbestos in buildings erected or refurbished before the year 2000 and across the whole of the West Midlands Region one person dies a painful death every three days from mesothelioma and these deaths are almost exclusively people who have previously been exposed to asbestos.

The number of asbestos-related workplace deaths exceeds the figure of deaths in road accidents but many workers, particularly tradesmen, think that they are not personally at risk of exposure to asbestos or the diseases it can cause. They think that since asbestos was banned many years ago, the problem has been dealt with and therefore it is not relevant to them. The reality is very different.

Exposure to asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths, with around 4,000 people a year dying from asbestos-related disease. The overall number of deaths is rising because a large number of workers who have already been exposed to asbestos dust around 40 years ago will go on to develop mesothelioma, a terminal cancer or other asbestos related diseases.

Today asbestos still presents a real and relevant risk to plumbers, joiners, electricians and many other maintenance workers as it may be present in any building constructed or refurbished before the year 2000. It is estimated that around 500,000 non-domestic buildings could contain asbestos and these buildings all need repair and maintenance work from time to time but when the asbestos fibres are disturbed, for example by drilling or cutting, they are likely to be inhaled as a deadly dust.

Notes

The prosecution was brought under:
Regulation 10(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 which states that:

"Every employer shall ensure that adequate information, instruction and training is given to those of his employees

a. who are or who are liable to be exposed to asbestos, or who supervise such employees, so that they are aware of

i. the properties of asbestos and its effects on health, including its interaction with smoking,
ii. the types of products or materials likely to contain asbestos,
iii. the operations which could result in asbestos exposure and the importance of preventive controls to minimise exposure,
iv. safe work practices, control measures, and protective equipment,
v. the purpose, choice, limitations, proper use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment,
vi. emergency procedures,
vii. hygiene requirements,
viii. decontamination procedures,
ix. waste handling procedures,
x. medical examination requirements, and
xi. the control limit and the need for air monitoring,

in order to safeguard themselves and other employees."

HSE

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