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Posts Tagged ‘asbestos regulations’
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Stuart Pearson at Guildford Magistrates’ Court for breaching the Control of Asbestos Regulations between the 20th of April and 1st of May 2011.
On the 30th of April 2012 the court was told that he had been employed to carry out the demolition of a house in Woking, Surrey, before groundwork’s were laid for a new property.
The previous homeowner had an asbestos survey carried out after a plumber refused to repair the boiler due to the presence of asbestos; this survey was given to Pearson to make him aware of the area which contained asbestos.
The survey highlighted that there were 12 metres of asbestos in poor condition within the house, with two of three areas classified as ‘high risk’. It went on to state: ‘This material is in very poor condition and debris now exists around the boiler and the floor within the rest of the room. This room must not be accessed until a full environmental clean and removal of all asbestos-containing materials has been carried out by a licensed asbestos contractor.’
The report also stated that the asbestos removal had to be undertaken in controlled conditions with the use of ‘enclosures, airlocks, negative pressure units and decontamination units’.
History of Asbestos in the UK
Earlier this year Silverdell PLC took the lead as the first company, (who major on the management of asbestos and other hazardous materials) to publish an historic timeline on the subject of asbestos, in a visual and easily shareable format.
They have adapted the timeline and accompanying article to reflect the recent supreme court landmark ruling and the changes to the (CAR) 2012 regulations.
The content, in the form of an infographic and detailed article, aims to highlight the ‘History of Asbestos’, the use of asbestos and asbestos legislation, since the first recorded asbestos-related death in 1906.
Redhills is one of the UK’s leading asbestos and environmental consultancies.
We have produced this document to answer the following asbestos related questions.
- What is the health risk from exposure to asbestos?
- What is the Control of Asbestos Regulations?
- What is the ‘duty to manage’ and who has it?
- What kinds of building are affected by asbestos regulations?
- How do I become asbestos compliant?
- What is an asbestos management survey and do I need one?
- What is an asbestos register?
- We are planning to refurbish or demolish some buildings do I need a survey?
- What are my responsibilities in relation to asbestos training?
- What should I do if someone has disturbed and damaged asbestos?
- Where is asbestos found in buildings?
For answers to all these questions, download the document here.
New asbestos legislation will undoubtedly lead to extra costs for many employers in the electrical contracting industry, says Paul Reeve, head of Health & Safety and Environment at the ECA.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at the start of April, place more intensive requirements on maintenance contractors.
Under the new regulations, contractors must notify the relevant authorities if they are doing certain types of non-licensed work involving asbestos, and keep a brief written log of the work.
In addition, all employees who could come into contact with asbestos will need to be put under health surveillance. The tighter regulations are a response to the European Commission’s view that the UK had not fully implemented EU Directive 2009/148/EC on controlling worker’s exposure to asbestos.
Reeve said, “The HSE has put considerable thought into limiting the financial impact of the changes, but the new regulations will still require thousands of maintenance contractors to provide three-yearly respiratory health assessments for tens of thousands of their operatives. This could lead to a significant increase in costs.”
Asbestos Awareness
A laboratory testing firm has been prosecuted after putting workers at its Tyneside premises at risk of exposure to asbestos.
An investigation was started into the activities of Exova (UK) Limited after a complaint about the company was submitted. The complaint suggested that the company had not dealt with damaged asbestos at its site at The Grubb Parsons Building on Shields Road, Newcastle.
The company had been advised to follow asbestos regulations and had failed to do so after the second recommendation.
The company’s own accredited asbestos testing branch carried out a survey of the premises on the 3rd of October Newcastle Magistrates’ Court Heard. The branch identified damaged asbestos in two separate areas of the site and the survey stated that the asbestos should be removed, repaired or sealed.
In February 2010 a further survey was completed, this survey also stated that the previously identified damaged asbestos was still there.
Andrew Woodhall, and HSE inspector, visited the site on 15 July 2010, he found the recommendations of the two earlier surveys had still not been implemented and employees were continuing to access and work in the area.
Due to employees working in the area where asbestos was present and exposure was likely, the HSE inspector instigated enforcement action.
A construction company based in Edgware has been fined for carrying out unsafe demolition and construction work at a house in Surrey.
Laxmi Developments Ltd and its director, Vijay Madhaparia, were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), for failing to comply with a Prohibition Notice (PN). They had failed to provide adequate safety protection for employees and failed to carry out an asbestos survey on a property before demolition.
Redhills Magistrates’ Court heard that during a visit to a building site at Mellow Close, Banstead, on 23 June 2011, an inspector from the HSE was confronted with such poor standards; he consequently served a PN and three Improvement Notices on the firm.
The inspector issued a PN as workers were found knocking down the house at first floor level with no edge protection to prevent falls. They were aware of the requirements for scaffolding and edge protection, however, Madhaparia had instructed workers to go ahead with the demolition without these measures in place.
The firm was served with three Improvement Notices; these were served to ensure sufficient demolition planning was carried out, to improve welfare facilities on the site and also to ensure the site supervisor was competent to carry out the works.
On the 6th of September 2011, photographs were sent to the HSE showing the PN being contravened and the same poor practices continuing on site. The HSE then telephoned Madhaparia to discuss the previous PN and to remind him of the dangers of working at height.
UKAS has previously set its policy on asbestos surveyor and analyst qualifications following input and recommendations from its Asbestos Technical Advisory Committee.
This policy is stated in UKAS publications LAB30 for testing and RG8 for inspection, which require that all analysts and surveyors must hold formal recognised qualifications (in addition to demonstrable knowledge, experience and in-house training) in order to be authorised to undertake specified asbestos activities.
Previously, the main provider of qualifications recognised by UKAS has been the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), through its Proficiency Modules. However, more recently Asbestos Testing and Consultancy (ATAC) submitted a proposal to the UKAS Asbestos Technical Advisory Committee requesting that its newly developed qualifications, administered by Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), also be formally recognised.
After reviewing the course content, and feedback from a short pilot, it has been agreed that these qualifications will receive equal recognition from UKAS to the P Modules provided by BOHS. As a consequence, as of 14 February 2012, UKAS shall recognise the following qualifications as suitable in providing evidence towards an individual’s competence:
There will be new rules implemented at the Priorswood recycling site in Taunton, as well as the rest of Somerset from March, requiring all asbestos to be double wrapped and sealed for disposal.
Priorswood accept cement bonded or sheet asbestos, any other form of asbestos residents should seek professional advice for.
Asbestos needs to be brought to the sight in rubble bags closed with gaffer or duct tape and the recycling centre will have to be informed before the asbestos is dropped at the recycling site.
Larger sheets of asbestos should not be broken but double wrapped using heavy duty plastic.
The Somerset County Council now provide asbestos collection for a fee, if you are unable to take asbestos to Priorswood.
Somerset Waste Partnership managing director Steve Read said:
“Somerset is raising the standards to ensure everyone’s safety, whether it’s residents disposing of asbestos or other recycling site users and staff.”
Asbestos has been found in almost 200 schools in the Bristol area.
MPs and peers branded the presence of the potentially lethal material as a “time bomb in our schools”, earlier this month. They then called for a scheme for the removal of asbestos.
Bristol City Council has said that asbestos is present in about 50 of the city’s state primary schools and two secondary schools; however it seems unlikely that it will be removed due to the costs.
A total of 81 schools in South Gloucestershire have asbestos in the fabric of their buildings. In North Somerset asbestos is present in 52 of the 67 primary schools and 8 of the 10 secondary schools.
All the buildings were audited by the council in 2009 and 2010 implementing annual re-inspections.
A report was released by the Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health earlier this month, calling for regular updates about asbestos for parents, teachers and staff. They also called for asbestos to be removed from all schools.
The city council has said that the two secondary schools in the city have “some level of asbestos” and the primary schools have “varying degrees of asbestos”. Most schools seem to have low levels of asbestos.
A full investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is being called on by the Trade Union GMB, following allegations that council sub-contractors working on properties in Pollard Close, Holloway, in December 2010 broke strict regulations.
The trade union claimed that workers had disposed of white asbestos floor tiles in ordinary bins, potentially exposing refuse collectors and also the public to the dangerous substance.
The council insisted that the tiles, which are known to be of a low contamination risk, were bagged up and appropriately disposed of at a licensed site.
Gary Doolan, GMB’s Islington branch secretary said that the council has provided no evidence to prove that the claims were wrong.
Gary Doolan said that:
“It only takes one fibre of white asbestos to cause harm. It should be treated with the same priorities as high risk material.”
The Welsh Government has launched an independent review into the management of asbestos at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth.
The hospital failed to implement effective controls to manage asbestos after a survey in 2004 found the substance in stairwells and lift shafts. The unsafe practices, which required maintenance workers to operate in these areas, continued until 2009, when they were quickly identified by the hospital’s new Health Board and reported to the HSE.
However, the HSE was powerless to pursue a prosecution over the asbestos breaches because of a legislative error, which failed to ensure that issues of previous corporate criminal responsibility were transferred to the Hywel Dda Local Health Board when it was created – along with six others – in 2009, as part of NHS reforms in Wales.
The chief executive of NHS Wales, David Sissling, has now commissioned an independent review into the management of asbestos at the hospital, so that lessons can be learned for the wider organisation. The review will be undertaken alongside the ongoing investigation by the HSE and the internal inquiry by the Health Board.
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