12:16pm Thursday 10th December 2009
By Hannah Crown
AN EDMONTON company has had to pay nearly £10,000 for exposing people to potentially fatal asbestos fibres during a major office refurbishment in Wales.
Waxport Ltd of Mottingham Road, Edmonton, owned a four storey office block Oldway House in Merthyr Tydfil, used by a variety of businesses including a drug and alcohol service, the probation service, a tanning salon and a hairdresser.
The firm pleaded guilty to breaches of two asbestos regulations at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court on Monday December 7. They were fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,400.
Waxport told a company they had hired to refurbish the block that the asbestos present was safe.
But when the refurbishment started in April 2007 the asbestos was disturbed. Work only stopped when a site worker saw the asbestos and reported it. About five construction workers were exposed.
The workers used one of the public stairwells which were used by the building's staff and members of the public.
An inspector from the Health and Safety Executive, Dean Baker, said: “The dangers of asbestos are very well known, but Waxport Ltd failed to carry out a proper risk assessment putting their own staff, contractors and other people working in the building at risk of being exposed to airborne fibres.
“The company were required to have a comprehensive asbestos management plan in place identifying where asbestos was located but they failed to do this. In this case, an asbestos survey was only carried out after the incident occurred.
“Working on or near damaged asbestos-containing materials or breathing in high levels of asbestos fibres, which may be many hundreds of times that of environmental levels could increase workers’ chances of getting an asbestos-related disease.”
When asbestos fibres are inhaled they can cause serious diseases which are responsible for around 4000 deaths a year. Asbestos causes a range of conditions, two of which are nearly always fatal: mesothelioma and lung cancer.
More information on asbestos, can be found on HSE’s website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm
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