A building company in Suffolk has been fined after it removed asbestos insulation board from a farm building in Essex without a license.
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard how a member of the public alerted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after expressing concern that unsafe work was being carried out at the building. The investigation found that LJW Cladding Ltd was not licensed to remove the asbestos, despite them telling the farm owner that it did. In addition, none of the firm’s workers were trained to carry out the work, conducted in February last year. They had also been put in danger of falls of up to four metres whilst removing the boards, as a result of inadequate safety netting and the inappropriate use of a harness and inertia reel.
The work in general was found to be very unsafe; the boards had been broken and any attempts to prevent the release of fibres deemed wholly inadequate, with the respiratory protective equipment given to workers found to offer insufficient protection. Instead of the standard three-stage decontamination unit which is required for work of this nature, all that workers were able to use were baby wipes and the cold water hose at the farm. They continued to wear contaminated overalls over their clothes and even took their lunch breaks on the site, meaning that they could have taken asbestos particles home with them.
LJW Cladding Ltd was fined £10,000 along with costs £3365.000 and a £120 victim surcharge after it pleaded guilty to breaching both the Work at Height Regulations and the Control of Asbestos Regulations.
HSE Principal Inspector, Dominic Elliss said after the hearing: “LJW Cladding’s incompetent actions led to its employees being potentially exposed to asbestos fibres at a much higher level than would have been possible had a competent licensed contractor been used.
“In addition there was a serious risk one of them could fall from or through the fragile roof because of the firm failed to provide effective safeguards. Too many workers continue to be seriously injured from falls in exactly this type of refurbishment project.”