Asbestos warning after company prosecuted

A Canadian company has been prosecuted for potentially exposing employees and contractors to carcinogenic fibres at their Swansea plant.

Vale Inco Europe Ltd pleaded guilty, on 9 June 2009, at Swansea Magistrates’ Court, to four charges under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 in relation to refurbishment work being carried by a contractor, A-Weld, on a furnace at the company’s premises in Clydach.

The company had carried out asbestos surveys on the buildings on their site, but had not surveyed the interior of plant and equipment. As a result, asbestos insulation material within the reformer furnace was disturbed and broken, giving rise to powder and fibres, which posed a greater risk.

Workers discovered a white material they suspected of being asbestos, and a sample was sent for analysis, but the site was not isolated and work was allowed to continue until the results of the tests confirmed that the material was asbestos.
However, whilst the company then followed advice from a licensed asbestos contractor to damp down the area, the men originally working on the furnace had removed their overalls and external clothing in an area in which no-one was wearing masks or protective equipment.

HSE Principal Inspector Andrew Knowles said: There are numerous failures in this case, including the failure to assume that asbestos would be present in the reformer furnace unless it could be proved that it was not. Knowledge that asbestos insulation was present would have resulted in a licensed contractor being used to remove the material and prevented these workers coming into contact with asbestos at all.

Asbestos is the greatest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Every week, 20 tradesmen die from asbestos related diseases, including mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining of the lung caused by asbestos.

The failures in this case were entirely preventable and the defendant fell far short of the high standards required. This should serve as a warning to others about the dangers of asbestos and the legal requirement to manage it properly.


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