asbestos in the news SHP Magazine, 17 May 2010


Asbestos management made easy for retailers


factsheet’ on abestos for retailers. Its aim is to help those in the retail sector understand their legal responsibilities and ensure their workers, customers or any contractors are protected from exposure.


T Te regulator joined forces with the


independent BHF-BSSA Group, which represents more than 7500 small retailers, to address the low rate of compliance with the duty to manage under regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.


Te resulting factsheet outlines: w who has the duty to manage; w what the duty to manage means;


w three essential steps to comply with the duty; and


w advice on asbestos surveys.


he HSE has teamed up with a retail trade body to produce a ‘quick-reference


Te HSE’s asbestos programme director, Steve


Coldrick, said: “Around 4000 people die each year from past exposure to asbestos. It may be present in any building built before the year 2000, and so it is essential that retailers are aware of the risk it still poses, and their responsibilities in managing it.


“Working with the BHF-BSSA to put in simple


terms what businesses should be doing will help remove any mystery or uncertainty around the regulations.”


Michael Weedon of the BHF-BSSA Group


added: “Contractors never know what they are walking into when they start work on a job but retailers walk into the same premises day after day after day, so they really need to know what is lurking in their environment.


“Our factsheet sets out to make the subject


clear and easy to understand, both for those who own their own premises and those who rent them from others.”


Te factsheet is available to BHF-BSSA


members at www.bssa.co.uk and on the HSE website.


HSE, 22 April 2010


temporary closure of country club near Darlington over fears of exposure to asbestos.


A Nationwide Building Contractors Limited


- which is registered at 1640 Parkway, Solent Business Park, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire - was today fined a total of £4,500 at Darlington Magistrates’ Court over the incident. Te company was found guilty, in its absence, of breaching Regulations 5, 11 and 16 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, between 7 January and 6 March 2008.


Te company had been contracted to


refurbish Hall Garth Hotel Golf and Country Club, at Coatham Mundeville, near Darlington.


When HSE inspectors visited the site, they


found that work was carried out without adequate checks for asbestos or asbestos- containing materials, and served a Prohibition Notice - immediately stopping construction work. Further investigations found large amounts of asbestos pipe lagging in walls and floor voids where work had been undertaken.


HSE worked with local Environmental


Health Officers and the hotel management to ensure that asbestos fibres had not spread to the occupied areas of the hotel. Te hotel was voluntarily closed while tests were undertaken. Fortunately the test results in the public areas were negative.


building firm has been fined after refurbishment work triggered the


Firm fined After the case, HSE Inspector Victoria Wise


said: “Construction and maintenance workers are


the most at-risk groups from asbestos-related diseases due to the nature of their work. Te 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.


“Nationwide Building Contractors could have


prevented this risk and should have ensured that the asbestos containing materials in the work areas had been identified and, where necessary, removed - then the information passed on to those who were liable to disturb the fabric of the building.


“Tis prosecution should act as a reminder to those in the construction industry, and those


aſter potential asbestos exposure


in control of the repair and maintenance of buildings, of the importance of ensuring that a suitable and sufficient assessment for asbestos has been 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.”


Asbestos products have been widely used in


the UK since the end of the 19th century and were used in the construction and refurbishment of buildings until 1999.


Asbestos can cause a number of fatal or


serious respiratory conditions if fibres are inhaled. Asbestos exposure is the most serious occupational health issue in the UK, and is responsible for approximately 4,000 deaths each year.


Nationwide Building Contractors Ltd is now in liquidation.


06


ARCA & ATAC NEWS


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