Asbestos failings cost contractor dearly
Health & Safety update 12/10/2011
A London-based building contractor will have to pay out more
than £25,000 in fines and costs, after failing to ensure the proper
asbestos exposure precautions were in place on one of his
sites.
Fadil Adil, from Bromley in South East London, was found to have
insufficient protection in place for his workers during demolition
work being carried out in June 2010 on a building on Bromley High
Street.
During a spot check, health and safety inspectors found that
asbestos insulating boards from the ceilings of the building -
which contained a restaurant on the ground floor, with flats above
it - were being broken up with sledge hammers and hand-operated
breakers. This would have exposed the three men carrying out the
demolition to asbestos fibres.
It emerged during the investigation that Adil did not have a
licence to work with asbestos, was not trained in construction
management, had not carried out an asbestos survey and had not
provided the workers with any guidance for if they should discover
the substance.
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, Ian Seabrook, said
that he had ignored the well-known dangers of asbestos.
"It is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the
UK with around 1,000 tradesmen dying each year from
asbestos-related diseases," Seabrook pointed out. "Anyone working
with these sorts of materials has to commission an asbestos survey
to ascertain the level of work needed and then have asbestos
removed in a controlled manner by a licensed contractor."
Adil was fined £19,300 for breaching the Control of Asbestos
Regulations 2006, and the Construction (Design and Management)
Regulations 2007 and ordered to pay £7,654 in costs.
If you would like further information,
and already subscribe to
RBS
Mentor, please call
the Advice
Service. If you would like more information on
how Mentor could help your business in situations like this and
many others, contact
us today for
information.
Next Story - Community service for
unregulated gas fitter
Previous story - UK to push for farm
subsidy reform