Council fined as employee suffers loss of movement in hands

The Health & Safety Executive recently prosecuted a local authority after a maintenance worker suffered a permanent loss of movement to his hands, as a result of hand arm vibration syndrome.

The worker began work for Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council as a mechanic in 1984. His job regularly involved use of heavy-duty vibrating equipment, including pneumatic drills and hand-held grinders.

The council, which became part of Cheshire East Council in April 2009, first identified the early stages of the worker’s condition in mid- 2005 at which stage annual assessments were recommended. However following a reassessment in 2006, he was not seen again until 2009.

The worker in question has difficulty picking up small objects, and his hands become very painful in cold weather. The Council was fined £5,300 and ordered to pay £5,860 towards the cost of the prosecution, as a result of its failure to take any significant action to stop the workers’ condition getting worse.

Nearly two million people in the UK work in conditions which put them at risk of developing hand-arm vibration syndrome.

Pub Chain fined over asbestos

The large UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers has been fined £14,000 under the Health and Safety at Work Act for exposing workers to asbestos during the refurbishment of a pub in Darlington.
The Health & Safety Executive investigation discovered that the company had originally commissioned a survey to check for asbestos, but the survey was restricted to the areas where the proposed refurbishment was to take place. However, the refurbishment plans were changed at a later date to include a kitchen area that had not been part of the original survey.
The ceiling tiles in the kitchen contained asbestos so that when the workers drilled into them to prepare for new electrics and plumbing, they were covered with dust and debris which could have exposed them to asbestos fibres.
Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in the UK, with an estimated 4,000 people dying every year. If you have been exposed to asbestos at work, please contact Vicky Jones on 0116 212 1000.

Asbestos in Schools

Following government estimates that 70% of school buildings contain asbestos, the Asbestos in Schools campaign has called for an audit to be carried out to establish the actual extent of the problem, specific asbestos guidance to be drafted and distributed to schools and asbestos management plans to be put in place for all schools. 

Asbestos was used in school buildings that were built or refurbished between 1945 and 1975.  It was used mainly in ceiling tiles, partitions and pre-fabricated classroom units which were intended for temporary use but, in some schools, have become permanent.  Contained asbestos is safe, but it becomes dangerous if it is in a deteriorating panel or is exposed after vandalism.  After the cuts announced to the schools building programme, there are concerns that asbestos in schools will become a greater problem as buildings were left in disrepair, because it was hoped they would be replaced, will simply be allowed to decay further as money is not available for repairs.

In the period 1980 to 2005, 178 teachers died from mesothelioma, which is caused from breathing in fibers in asbestos dust.  It only takes a small amount of asbestos to trigger mesothelioma but it usually takes 30 – 40 years for mesothelioma to develop.  Once developed, life expectancy is short, two years at most, and there is no cure.

Government plans to support people with Asbestos-Related Illnesses

The Government have announced plans to support people who have been negligently exposed to asbestos:-

Pleural Plaques

The Government undertook a review of whether to restore the right for compensation for pleural plaques since the Law Lords’ ruling in October 2007 that pleural plaques were not compensatable.  The Government concluded that, under current medical advice, pleural plaques do indicate the sufferer has been exposed to asbestos, but are generally symptomless and not harmful so no compensation is due.  If new evidence were to come to light, the Government would consider reassessing this.

If someone with pleural plaques goes on to develop another asbestos-related disease, they may be able to claim compensation from a former employer for negligent exposure to asbestos, but would not be able to claim compensation for pleural plaques.

Other Asbestos-related Diseases

• Creation of an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office to help people trace the relevant insurer and claim compensation for asbestos-related diseases;
• Increased upfront payments for mesothelioma sufferers and their dependents;
• Expand research into asbestos-related diseases;
• The Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Bill which aims to simplify bringing claims against insurers of companies that no longer exist;
• Consultation on the creation of an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau.

Although the decision on pleural plaques is disappointing, Lawson-West welcome moves to create an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office and the consultation on an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau.  The problem faced by many sufferers of asbestos-related diseases is that, because of the time these diseases can take to develop, tracing the employer or the employers’ insurers can be very difficult and where an insurer has gone out of business, sufferers can be left unable to claim compensation for a very serious and sometimes terminal illnesses.