One of the health and safety services which can help to prevent health conditions and even save lives are the asbestos surveys. Asbestos is responsible for thousands of deaths every year.  It is the duty of the building owner/occupier to ensure that no one comes into contact with asbestos that is not specially trained to remove it, and has all the correct safety gear.

Rotherham Firm Puts Lives at Risk

One firm who neglected to make use of an asbestos survey delivered by a health and safety consultants firm has recently been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive.  They were found to allow their workers to be exposed to this toxic material, even though they had been given advice from their local council on how to deal with the problem.

The Health and Safety Executive were forces to ban anyone from entering two of the warehouses which were owned by Rotherham Bonding Company. The firm runs a storage business and they only took their workers out of the dangerous warehouses once the prohibition notices was served.

The storage firm ran the warehouses but they were owned and the sold by their sister company, known as Fosters of Thrybergh , to the council.  The council had ordered a complete asbestos survey from health and safety consultants.  However the warehouses were being cleared using the staff from Fosters of Thrybergh as organised by Rotherham Storage Firm.

Asbestos Found In Both Warehouses

All around the warehouse were broken pieces of asbestos, and the workers were constantly in the presence of the nasty material as the worked and operated fork lift trucks. Despite the council informing both the companies about the asbestos, they still permitted their staff to work in the environment.

Rotherham magistrates’ court heard that the HSE saw that there were both the white and brown types of asbestos in the warehouses. A complete asbestos survey was then carried out and this showed that eighteen of the samples taken from the buildings had a large amount of asbestos present.

The storage firm’s sister company Fosters of Thrybergh were fined £5,500 and ordered to pay £6,250 in costs after pleading guilty for two of the charges from the Control of Asbestos Regulations.  These were regarding the need to assess if asbestos was present, and to not allow workers to be exposed to asbestos.

The asbestos surveys from health and safety consultants are able to help duty holders and employees meet the demands of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.  Once the report has been made the proper removal of the substance can be arranged.

Veritas Health and Safety Consultants provide Asbestos Surveyor Surveys in the West Midlands and the UK. It is a tragic fact that 20 tradesmen die from the effects of being exposed to asbestos every week.  It is your legal duty to deal with this substance responsibly and help protect your workers and the public from this killer. Call 0800 1488 677 to ask about the health and safety services available, including the asbestos survey.