asbestos in the news
HSE joins forces with Hartlepool Council I
nspectors from Hartlepool Council and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) joined forces
to inspect more than 85 businesses during March, taking enforcement action where necessary, but also offering advice and guidance on how to improve health and safety standards. 12 companies were served with enforcement
notices in total. 22 Improvement Notices were issued, requiring 11 companies to provide additional safeguards such as effective management of asbestos in premises, the fitting of edge protection on unguarded mezzanine floor storage areas, and the testing of both lifting equipment and air receivers to assess their safety. Work was also prohibited at two companies in relation to unguarded dangerous machinery. HSE Inspector Jonathan Wills, said: “Preventing an accident occurring is much
better than having to deal with the consequences, and as well as issuing notices, we were able to offer constructive, practical advice to many of the companies we visited. “We’re very pleased to see that the health and
safety message is getting through in Hartlepool and a majority of businesses are taking the necessary steps to ensure a safe and healthy environment for their employees.”
Jane Kett, Principal Environmental Health
Officer at Hartlepool Council, added: “We were delighted with the success of the
campaign, which reinforced the strong working relationships already developed with our counterparts in HSE. “It is very encouraging to see that health and
safety risks were in most cases being properly addressed. Clearly any potential accident is one accident too many and this was an opportunity
to provide the companies with lots of useful guidance.” HSE and local authority inspectors both enforce
health and safety law in workplaces. Broadly, local authority inspectors have responsibility for those providing leisure services or retail while HSE inspectors enforce appropriate health and safety legislation in other areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, waste and recycling and major hazard industries.
Asbestos, Still a Killer L
Drawing on the UK fight-back against asbestos,
ondon, England: For twenty years, the British Asbestos Newsletter has exposed the
human tragedy behind the country’s love affair with asbestos, a substance which has caused the country’s worst epidemic of occupational death. Te consequences of using 6 million tonnes of asbestos over 100 years has produced incalculable human misery and untold environmental damage. Epidemiologists predict that in the next 40 years, more than a hundred thousand people will die from asbestos cancer. Over the years, the British Asbestos Newsletter
(BAN) has established itself as an authoritative source with a regular print and online readership. In a speech to the House of Commons MP John Battle referred to the “brilliantly researched British Asbestos Newsletter” and paid “tribute to (the editor) Laurie Kazan Allen’s tireless and selfless campaigning…” To mark the 20th anniversary of the
newsletter the BAN editor, with the assistance of representatives from the medical and legal professions, the judiciary, unions, politics and academia, has produced a commemorative issue which assesses the progress made and asbestos challenges remaining.
Kazan-Allen highlights the key staging posts and stratagems which have succeeded in countering injustices suffered by the asbestos-injured. Despite the improvements which have been brought about through campaigning by victims and their supporters, “when it comes to asbestos,” Kazan- Allen writes: “there is no such thing as a definitive solution.” “Industry stakeholders, asbestos
defendants and even government agencies constantly chip away at measures to support the injured and protect public and occupational health…. With ever tighter budget constraints on governments, councils and corporations anticipated, it is likely that short-cuts will be taken which could compromise occupational and public health. Judging by developments over the last 20 years, it seems that every generation needs to be reminded of the asbestos danger; a failure to do so could result in the asbestos epidemic taking even more lives in the decades to come.” For further information, contact Laurie Kazan-
Allen, BAN Editor/Publisher by email: laurie@lkaz.
demon.co.uk or phone: + 44 (0) 208 958 3887 or see the website of the British Asbestos Newsletter website:
http://www.lkaz.demon.co.uk
ARCA & ATAC NEWS
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