Asbestos Management

 

MA Estates Limited of Holmfield, the owner and landlord of a factory building, was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive for failing to properly manage the removal of asbestos-containing material when employees were replacing a roof at the factory in June 2007.

Halifax Magistrates’ Court was told that up to 15 employees from two businesses, both part of the same group as MA Estates and both occupants of the building, were working to upgrade the roof.

This included stripping material from support beams which, when later tested by HSE, were found to contain asbestos in limpet and spray form, the HSE said.

A local business complained to HSE after seeing the stripped materials, suspecting that they included asbestos fibres.

HSE visited the site and served a Prohibition Notice on MA Estates to stop work immediately.

The HSE said their investigation found the company had failed to carry out an asbestos survey or risk assessment and had no licence to remove asbestos. It had also failed to give staff instruction or training in removing it and had left workers exposed, with no attempts to limit the spread of asbestos or exposure to it.

“The dangers of asbestos should never be underestimated and are well known in the property industry and beyond,” HSE inspector Rachel Brittain said. “I can’t stress enough how important it is for anyone carrying out building work to obtain the proper asbestos surveys and then act upon them.”

MA Estates pleaded guilty to seven charges under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and of breaching Section 3(1) of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was ordered to pay £2,475 in costs.

In a separate case, HSE successfully prosecuted 2010 Rotherham Limited, a council-owned housing company, for asbestos exposure.

The company, set up by Rotherham Council to manage and improve council houses, was fined after allowing a plumber to be exposed to up to 50 times the legal limit for asbestos.

Rotherham magistrates heard that the company employed a sub-contactor, Nugas of Barnsley, to remove an old bathroom and install a level-access shower room at a house in Orchard Place.

An asbestos survey carried out for 2010 Rotherham on a similar property next door eight weeks earlier highlighted the presence of asbestos in the bathroom. But the results of this survey were not passed on to Nugas.

The worker removed – unknowingly — tiles bonded to a wall of asbestos insulating board, causing significant damage to the wall. He wore neither protective clothing nor respiratory protection.

At the same time, a licensed asbestos removal company was in the process of removing the same wall in the flat next door after being appointed by 2010 Rotherham Ltd.

The court was told that the company had received previous advice and enforcement action regarding the risks from asbestos during refurbishment work including two enforcement notices in 2005 and 2008.

2010 Rotherham Limited pleaded guilty to breaching the Health & Safety at Work Act and was fined £7,000 with £3,418 costs.

Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK, the HSE said. An estimated 4,000 people die every year.