Asbestos cover up - help needed please!

[Cirrus]

He also seems to think that once the site has been given the all clear next week - that we will be willing to go back and do exactly the same thing but with full ppe in place. What he doesn't realise is that neither of us are willing to go back full ppe or no! He seems to think that it will be fine suited and booted, using an HVAC. Money grabbing and corner cutting I think. Well, am having new washing machine delivered tomorrow (wife is relieved) so will present him with the bill on Monday and expect the fur to fly.

 

[androiduk2002]

IMHO

The buck should stop at who ever had the report that asbestos was present and never passed this information on.

I believe he/the company he workers for/owns is the one at fault, now if your boss knew and never passed the information on they he should be paying for all costs incured in my eyes.

I am very interested as to what happens with the HSE on this .

Your boss might be being very optermistic that the site will be deemed safe by next week ! ! and HSE will allow you to return. Can they really make it happen this quickly as to do visits and tests and clean up and retest in lets say 5 working days ?

To go off on a little tangent here, we have had to have some work done here on 2 ceilings because of peeling artex (council property) they sent main maintenance contractor out (very nice guy) who informed us that they could do the make good work but wasnt not allowed to over board as they was licienced to do that, so the arrangements where all made.

The approved asbestos contractors come in, they had the window open whilst working the door open , they brought blue dust sheets up, 1 left still in packing the other was used as a rubbish bag, no masks where used by them and no coveralls worn. These are ment to be approved licienced contractors ! ! ! . Complaints have gone into the main contracor and the council.

 

[Sidewinder]

Cirrus,

You could try to claim on your house insurance for the wash m/c if you can;t get it paid for, talk nice to HSE and they might give you a letter explaining why it needs to be scrapped?

Does it need to be treated as contaminated waste though?

if you involve your house insurance they may be able to help you out as it is really a no fault claim incident?

Just a thought?

Paul

 

[NozSpark]

Shouldn't HSE be doing air and sample checks..

then if they come back as asbestos contaminated then shouldn't it all be removed as it's recently been cut??

If so then the site is more than likely to be shut down for a month and not a few days.

As to the washing machine I personally think that you have jumped the gun... OK there's a possibility that it may not be safe to use but it may also be perfectly ok... so while you are waiting for the results to come back then don't use it and go to the laundrette/friends or family.. only if and when they say it is contaminated will your boss (or whoever) be liable for buying you another one... in the mean time I would have thought that he should pay you reasonable costs towards getting your laundry done..

After the site is deemed safe then I don't see a problem in returning to it so long as you have all the appropriate PPE and procedures in place to ensure that it's safe.

 

[m4tty]

Cirrus,You could try to claim on your house insurance for the wash m/c if you can;t get it paid for, talk nice to HSE and they might give you a letter explaining why it needs to be scrapped?

Does it need to be treated as contaminated waste though?

if you involve your house insurance they may be able to help you out as it is really a no fault claim incident?

Just a thought?

Paul

Hi mate I used to be an insurance underwriter and if he claims off his contents insurance and the insurance company cannot recover costs from a third party the claim will go against him at renewal. I was told it's a no CLAIM bonus not a no BLAME bonus. Hope this helps. Cheers

 

[bengie]

<flame suit on>

whats all the fuss about? i know asbestos can be dangerous but people(not saying you lot) seem to treat it like its radioactive or something! cutting a couple of holes in a ceiling covered in unlicenced asbestos isn't going to kill you let alone your family, there are far far more dangerous in the home/work place that people use everyday without thinking about it.

how many of you smoke? how many of you drink excessively?(2 pints/2glasses of wine/4 shots or more most(but not all) days of the week? who cuts or has cut MDF without a mask and/or filtered extraction? and so on and so forth.

Yes asbestos can be a killer but it takes a fair bit to harm you, i think there are many many things out there that people use regularly but think nothing of them as its not shouted about as being dangerous.

To the OP, personally i wouldn't be worried i would simply be aware of the issue's and voice them with my employer firmly, working on asbestos isn't dangerous as long as you follow the HSE's guides.

also guys and dolls don't forget the time limits to working on asbestos related materials even when using full PPE!

-short, non-continuous maintenance activities. Work can only be considered as short, non-continuous maintenance activities if any one person carries out work with these materials for less than one hour in a seven-day period. The total time spent by all workers on the work should not exceed a total of two hours.

this includes your cleaning up and bagging of materials.

 

[mercurystar999]

Are these ceilings made out of asbestos sheet or just covered with artex containing asbestos?

If the latter i feel this is a over reaction as i work on artex covered ceilings everyday and they are no harm at all as the asbestos is bonded with the artex so very few fibres actually are released when drilling or making a hole in.

 

[ProDave]

Apart from the people working on the site, what about the people living in the property?

I was once called to fit new electric storage heaters (including the CU and all the wiring) in 2 farm cottages. As soon as I viewed the properties it was apparent they were asbestos prefabs and asbestos was everywhere, ceilings and walls certainly. I turned the job down. More trouble than it's worth. The client, upon being told I didn't want to work with asbestos told me this was the first time a tradesman of any sort had raised a concern about it.

 

[Evans Electric]

I used to have a commercial customer with a load of quite old storage heaters in their offices ,a well known make which now escapes me. I considered them to contain asbestos and could imagine it flying everywhere if I dismantled one ,so would not attempt to repair them.

I wrote, twice, to the makers asking what they contained, no reply.

I phoned a licensed asbestos firm about them , they said yes they had dealt with such things, put them in a bag and remove them wholesale.