Workers exposed to deadly asbestos fibres

Date:

27 October 2011

A building contractor has been sentenced after its workers were exposed to potentially deadly asbestos fibres during refurbishment work at premises in Swansea.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted J C Irvine Limited following an investigation which revealed that work on the refurbishment of the former Ace Electrics building in The Strand was being carried out without an asbestos survey.

Swansea Magistrates heard that, between the dates of 27 April 2010 and 12 May 2010, asbestos containing materials were disturbed by construction workers employed by the defendant, releasing asbestos fibres into the air.

The HSE was informed that employees were carrying out work in a contaminated building, and inspectors visiting the site on 12 May 2010 served an immediate Prohibition Notice.

The subsequent investigation found that J C Irvine Limited failed to ensure that the refurbishment work was planned in such a way as to reduce the risk to health and safety. It also failed to ensure that its employees were not exposed to asbestos fibres.

J C Irvine Limited of Oldway, Bishopston, Swansea pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 23(1)(a) of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 and Regulation 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. It was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £2,148.50.

Speaking after the hearing, HSE inspector, Hayley Healey said:

"Construction and maintenance workers are in the most at-risk groups from asbestos-related diseases due to the nature of their work. The widespread occurrence of asbestos as a product in buildings constructed or refurbished prior to 2000, means that inadvertent disturbance of asbestos-containing materials can be frequent and regular where asbestos products have not been adequately identified or managed.

"This prosecution should act as a reminder to those in the construction industry of the importance of ensuring that an asbestos survey, and its findings, are available prior to work being carried out and that the correct control measures are in place to ensure that exposure to asbestos is prevented, so far as is reasonably practicable."

There are four main diseases caused by asbestos, all of which can develop much later after exposure - they are mesothelioma (always fatal); lung cancer (almost always fatal); asbestosis (not always fatal, but can be very debilitating) and diffuse pleural thickening.

In Wales, a total of 1,320 people have died from mesothelioma between 1982 and 2008. Information on working safely with asbestos is available at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 23(1)(a) of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2007 states that findings of an asbestos survey were not available before the start of the construction phase, therefore it failed to prepare a construction phase plan which was sufficient to ensure that the construction phase was planned, managed and monitored in a way which enabled the construction work to be started so far as is reasonably practicable without risk to health or safety.
3. Regulation 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 states that the defendant undertook work which exposed or was liable to expose its employees to asbestos as it had started work at the premises without the findings of a suitable and sufficient assessment as to whether asbestos was present, what type of asbestos, contained in what material and in what condition and did not assume that asbestos was present and that it was chrysotile alone, or take measures to comply with the Regulations whilst carrying out work at the site

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Issued on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive by COI News and PR Wales