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HSE warns that firms exposing untrained workers to asbestos will be penalised


Posted by Chris Owen | Date Posted 21.01.2009 | Time Posted 08:54:00 | Views: 661

The HSE is warning that firms exposing workers to asbestos without training will be penalised. It also reiterated that electrical contracting companies and other building and refurbishment trades must provide suitable asbestos awareness training to employees or face prosecution.

This move follows the HSE prosecution of Scriven Electrical Contractors Ltd of West Bromwich for failing to ensure that adequate information, instruction and training was given to its employees. The court heard that an electrician employed by Scriven installed three heat detectors and associated cabling in a commercial-sized kitchen and boiler room. Although the ceiling tiles contained 5-50% brown asbestos, no asbestos awareness training was given by his employer prior to commencement of the work, despite this being a legal requirement.

Scriven Electrical Contractors Ltd was fined £3,000 under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and ordered to pay £2,757 in costs, by West Bromwich Magistrates for breaching Regulation 10(1)(a) of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

Speaking after the case, HSE inspector John Healy said:

"Scrivens should have known of the dangers and the legal requirement to give sufficient training to protect employees from exposure to asbestos because 98% of their work involves the risk of encountering asbestos."

"Those responsible for employees ordinarily have a legal duty to protect their health and safety but, in the case of asbestos, those involved in building or refurbishment must know that any disturbance of such a dangerous material should only be completed by trained workers."

Exposure to asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths, with around 4,000 people a year dying from asbestos-related diseases.


Published in sections: Health and Safety ::

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