Posts Tagged ‘asbestos fibres’
A £1m fine for Marks and Spencer asbestos exposure at Reading store
At Bournemouth Magistrates’ court Marks and Spencer have been fined £1m for failing to protect customers, staff and workers from potential exposure to asbestos during refurbishment at stores in Reading, Bournemouth and Plymouth.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) initiated the criminal proceedings against Marks and Spencer plc and three other companies for asbestos-related breaches during refurbishment work at shops. It has been said that the management of the ‘retail giant’ were more concerned about the refurbishment works being ‘unsightly and ‘interfering with the shopping experience’, than controlling the exposure of the cancer causing fibres.
Bournemouth crown court was told that Marks and Spencer plc, did not allocate sufficient time and space for the removal of asbestos-containing materials at the Reading store. The contractors had to work overnight in enclosures on the shop floor, with the aim of completing small areas of asbestos removal before the shop opened to the public each day. Read More
Asbestos fine for Halifax business
A Halifax property management company was fined £30,100 after admitting a series of offences leading workers being exposed to asbestos fibres.
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. Read More
Asbestos scandal
Viewed through an electron microscope, asbestos fibres look like thin glass straws, some no more than a fraction of a micrometre wide. If inhaled, they penetrate the soft alveoli of the lungs and the membranes that line the chest cavity. And there they stay. Over time, damaged cells can cause a malignant disease called mesothelioma, which often kills people, horribly, less than a year after diagnosis.
Before the widespread industrial use of asbestos began in the late nineteenth century, malignant mesothelioma was unheard of, yet it is now responsible for tens of thousands of deaths around the world every year. After the link between asbestos exposure and the disease was convincingly made in 1960, responsible nations eventually took strong measures to remove the mineral from commercial products and to halt mining and export. Less responsible nations did not; this is a scandal that deserves wider attention. Read More
Asbestos – understanding the risks
Asbestos continues to cause untold damage in the construction industry. Ian Rippin, commercial director of the National Laboratory Service (NLS), explains what it is, what it does and how to test for its presence
WHEN asbestos is damaged fine fibres become airborne and can be inhaled which can penetrate the lung tissue and trigger an inflammatory reaction. The body registers the problem and white blood cells are sent to engulf and attack the fibres. However, the fibres usually destroy the blood cells, causing fibrosis – irreversible scarring of the lungs.
Popular in the late 1800s, during the time of the Industrial Revolution, asbestos was used routinely as insulation for steam pipes, turbines, boilers, kilns, ovens and other high-temperature products. Previous observations of the health risks were forgotten or ignored at that time.
The first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in 1924 following the death of a woman aged thirty-three, after twenty years of working with the material. As a result of the diagnosis, a study was commissioned on asbestos workers in England, revealing twenty-five percent suffered from an asbestos-related lung disease. Laws were passed in 1931 to increase ventilation and to make asbestosis a recognised work- related disease.
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