A company in Belfast has been fined £9,000 after committing a series of serious health and safety breaches whilst renovating a bar.
The firm was contracted to carry out renovation on the bar, after plans were made to resurrect a failing business. However, whilst working on the renovation project, the firm disturbed asbestos leading to workers and non-employees being exposed to this extremely dangerous material.
It came to light that the contractors failed to carry out a refurbishment asbestos survey before beginning the work on the bar. It is essential a “refurbishment asbestos survey” is carried out before any work is undertaken on an asbestos-containing premise. During this survey, all asbestos containing materials are identified and located to ensure that no body, workers or non-workers, will be harmed by asbestos materials while the refurbishment is being carried out, and that any work that needs to be done in the areas that contain asbestos is conducted and carried out in a safe manner.
The firm was made aware of asbestos being present in certain locations in the building, which were located in areas where they would not be carrying out any work. They decided that it was safe to begin the renovation without completing a full survey. This oversight led to the workers disturbing asbestos in 2 separate areas of the bar – on the ground floor and the first floor. Asbestos was also located in various other locations around the bar including in a skip and under damaged beams.
It came to light that the company had access to a previous asbestos management survey done by the previous leases, and they believed that that this was a sufficient safety measure, but it turns out that they misread the full report, and believe that it was safe to carry out the work.
Asbestos is an incredibly dangerous material and, even though its usage is now banned, it is still present in a majority of buildings here in the UK. If you own a business that contains asbestos, it is important that you have an asbestos management plan in place and that you are clearly labelling the locations where asbestos can be found in your building.
If you are planning a renovation of your property and you are aware of asbestos containing materials being present in your building, you will need to hire a specialist contracting firm who are specially trained to handle and remove asbestos.
Here at Label Source, we stock a huge range of signs and labels all relating to asbestos, including mandatory PPE asbestos signs, asbestos warning signs and asbestos warning safety tapes.
Click here to view our full range of Asbestos safety signs.
