>>
Site Map
>>
Forums
>>
UK News
Forum module - topics in forum:
UK News - Breaking news in the field of health and safety
Fines for asbestos blunder companies
Two companies have been prosecuted and fined for errors that exposed school pupils, teaching and other school staff and contractors' employees to amosite (brown) asbestos fibres released while a building was undergoing refurbishment at Stanway School, Stanway, 3 miles west of Colchester, Essex.At Basildon Crown Court, project Principal Contractor, EC Harris Human Resources Limited, of London, was fined £17,500 with costs of £26,420 for breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974; Herts contractor, Clivnars Limited, was fined a total of £15,000 with £16,500 costs for breaching the Principal Act by failing to ensure the safety of its employees and others affected by its activities during the work.A report compiled long before the March 2001 project got underway identified the presence of asbestos elsewhere in the building but this did not prevent the contractors removing panels manufactured with asbestos-containing materials at windows, and because the normal stringent precautions for work with asbestos were not in place, fibres were released into the building's environment. Subsequent examination of the material placed in skips confirmed its hazardous nature, the entire project may have proceeded to its conclusion with no person the wiser had a school employee not expressed concerns to a head teacher while work was in progress.
