Company fined for asbestos exposure

A pub firm has been successfully prosecuted for exposing five workers to asbestos.

Mitchells & Butlers Retail was found to have carried out an inadequate survey of the site of a pub refurbishment.

The firm did do a survey for asbestos but failed to update it as the work plan changed, leaving three electricians and two plumbers exposed to asbestos dust and debris at a vacant pub in Darlington, the White Horse in Harrowgate Hill.

Officials from the Health and Safety Executive found that the company arranged an asbestos survey in June 2007 but this only covered provisional areas. The refurbishment plan changed before the work got underway.

Magistrates in Bishop Auckland were told that on September 28 that year, work began in the building’s kitchen area which was not part of the survey.

The kitchen had ceiling tiles which contained the cancer-causing mineral.

Using power tools, the workers drilled into them to install wiring and plumbing but were covered in dust and debris.

Mitchells & Butlers, of Fleet Street, Birmingham pleaded guilty to breaking section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 5 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

It was fined £14,001 and ordered to pay £11,781.45 in costs.

HSE inspector Victoria Wise said: “Construction and maintenance workers are among those most at risk from asbestos-related diseases due to the nature of their work.

“Asbestos is still widely present in buildings constructed prior to 2000, so workers can often inadvertently disturb materials containing asbestos if the correct survey has not been carried out to check for its presence and appropriate control measures put in place.”

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