Dairy company and welding company both failed to notify workers of asbestos exposure
Dairy Crest Limited were fined £12,000 and ordered to pay £22,214 in costs after breaching Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.
The company were criticised after they failed to properly plan the work removal work and failed to provide proper training for workers.
They were prosecuted this week alongside Rochdale Electric Welding Company Limited (REWCO) who also breached the same legislation and were fined £8000 and £13,786 in costs.
The HSE reports that Dairy Crest and REWCO were involved in the buying and selling of boilers from sites in Totnes and Somerset, with REWCO removing the fixed plant pipework and demolishing the boiler house.
However, REWCO failed to enquire before the work was carried out whether asbestos was present at the site, resulting in three of their workers being contaminated with asbestos dust and fibres.
The workers were not wearing any sort of protective clothing or equipment at the time of the work.
Exposure to asbestos can result in serious respiratory disease such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis and also diffuse pleural thickening.
Some asbestos-related diseases do not show immediate effects and may take some time to come to light, therefor it is extremely important that safety precautions are taken in order to avoid or minimise the risk of asbestos exposure.
Employees could have been further protected with the use of an appropriate facemask. The HSE recommend that respirator protection suitable for working with asbestos includes FFP3 (EN149) for a disposable facemask, P3 filter (EN140) for a half mask and a P3 filter (EN405) for a semi-disposable respirator.
Equipment which may have been used in aiding the detection of asbestos is the CEL-712 Microdust Pro from Casella. This instrument is ideal for the real-time detection of airborne dusts, fumes and aerosols and if used may have indicated how dangerous the asbestos in the building actually was.
Frontline Safety also has a range of full facemasks, half masks and also disposable masks. The Drager X-Plore 3300 Mask Chemical Workset comes with ABEK1HgP3 R D filters which protects in applications which include organic gases and vapours and also particles (class 3).
Despite the fact that Dairy Crest had previously carried out a suitable survey for asbestos material, they failed to pass on the report and the HSE discovered widespread contamination on the site in 2010.
“This was a very serious incident that could severely impact on the future health of the employees who worked with and near the asbestos. Both Dairy Crest Ltd and Rochdale Electric Welding Company Ltd committed safety failings that led to them being needlessly exposed to dangerous dust and fibres,” HSE Inspector, Martin Lee said.
“There were clear failings by both companies to identify and properly manage and control the asbestos containing material before work started, and to provide appropriate protection for workers when it did.”
Written by Dawn Mitchell