A Welsh government minister has written to the heads of all local authorities and registered social landlords directing them to tighten up their procedures for dealing with asbestos. After being lobbied by the Ucatt construction union, Lesley Griffiths – minister for communities and tackling poverty – reminded councils to...
As many people know, asbestos can be found in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before the year 2000. But when we say before 2000, how far back should we really go? Large scale, industrial use of asbestos didn’t really start until the mid 19th century, so it would...
The UK Asbestos Training Association (UKATA) has announced the introduction of two new courses. The Duty to Manage and Appointed Persons courses complement one another and are intended to provide delegates with the understanding, theoretical and practical skills to undertake the management of asbestos. As well as covering the...
The Independent has reported that thousands of British veterans who will develop terminal cancer due to being exposed to asbestos during their military service are being unfairly treated by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), campaigners and victims have claimed. Current laws mean that the MoD does not have to...
Tenants of a house in Lincolnshire, including a three year old girl, were exposed to dangerous levels of deadly asbestos dust, a court was told. A judge at Lincoln Crown Court fined Blankney Estates Ltd, the company which rented the property in Scopwick, after it pleaded guilty to health...
Some maintenance staff at a leading cancer hospital were “unknowingly exposed” to airborne asbestos levels above safety standards, a report says. The BBC has reported that the Christie hospital in Manchester admitted “historically may not have met the required health and safety standards”. They stressed that there was...
ARCA, the UK’s leading asbestos removal association, has published a Guidance Note on the responsibilities clients have when appointing asbestos contractors. The law requires that clients, make suitable arrangements for managing a project, and maintain and review these arrangements ...
A packaging company has been fined £24,000 for failing to remove potentially lethal asbestos from its factory. Smurfit Kappa UK Ltd, which has a site in West Auckland, County Durham, which employs about 170 people, pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to manage and remove the asbestos, at...