2022 News Archive
What was in the news in 2022
November 2022
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Read a statement from logistics company, Eddie Stobart following its fine for exposing workers to asbestos at a site in Widnes. The Company pled guilty to charges at the beginning of November, and admitted that it did not provide relevant surveys at the time in question.
Read of this school's closure after asbestos was found during building work. It really does pay to have a pre-refurb/demo (RD) asbestos survey carried out prior to any work being undertaken.
Asbestos find closes King Edmund School in Rochford until new year
October 2022
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John Hyde writing in The Law Society Gazette highlights how 'Asbestos-related cancer is now hitting white-collar workers, 10 years after the first wave of claims began to subside'.
Reality show in New Zealand hit by a reality check...
Dangerous discovery shuts down Seven's expensive new reality show
September 2022
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KentOnline News reports on the renovation project at Swale Borough Council buildings in Sittingbourne. Work has been disrupted after contractors discovered asbestos under window frames earmarked for replacement. The project was halted until testing could be carried out which confirmed the existence of asbestos.
Asbestos discovered in council buildings halts renovation works
Why it always pays to have an Asbestos Management Plan. Even the largest companies - as in this case, Poundland - need to adhere to the law.
Reported on the BBC's website, there was no plan for precautions needed to ensure the asbestos was restricted to secure locations.
Ipswich Poundland fined £565,000 over asbestos plan failings
French public health body, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) says there is a proven causal relationship between the risk of occurrence of the cancers of the larynx and ovaries and occupational asbestos exposure.
Anadolu Agency reports on ANSES research surrounding link between asbestos and other cancers
Sunday marked the 21st anniversary of 9/11. The Daily Mirror reported on documents still to be released concerning the full extent of toxic dust (including Asbestos) which was released into the atmosphere following the collapse of the Twin Towers.
August 2022
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It’s World Lung Cancer Day and we’re observing the day to remind everyone how asbestos exposure may cause both lung cancer and mesothelioma.
Two engineering companies and their director have been sentenced for failing to manage the risks from asbestos to employees within the workplace.
Director and companies fined for failing to manage the risk of asbestos
Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talc-based baby powder globally in 2023:
Johnson & Johnson to end global sales of talc-based baby powder
July 2022
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We reported last year on the purchase by ESG Trading Ltd of a former asbestos factory site in Rochdale.
With the site being contaminated with blue asbestos, public interest in the redevelopment of the area is high. The Manchester Evening News reports on a meeting of Rochdale Borough Council where an option to turn the area into a nature reserve was discussed.
Plans for redevelopment of former site of asbestos factory discussed at council meeting
The Grantham Journal reports that 150 council houses built after the Second World War will need to undergo renovation to remove asbestos containing materials.The final cost of the work, is estimated by South Kesteven District Council to be in the region of £4 million.
150 council homes in Grantham to undergo work to remove asbestos containing materials
Reported in Tes, the Health and Safety Executive has announced that from September, HSE inspectors will be visiting schools to assess how they are managing their asbestos risk.
Back in 2018 a Department for Education survey estimated asbestos was present in over 80% of schools and around 20% were not managing the toxic material in line with government guidance.
The Health and Safety Executive has released its full report - Asbestos-related disease statistics, Great Britain 2022.
HSE Report: Asbestos-related disease statistics
Reported by the Daily Record, work to remove waste along the River Ericht at Blairgowrie has been halted for safety reasons. Chemical waste and rubbish had been escaping from a former landfill site.
Asbestos materials have now also been discovered along riverbank.
Overseen by Perth & Kinross Council, various agencies have been involved with the project to remove the waste including Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), NatureScot and the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board.
The Daily Record reports on chemical and asbestos waste at Blairgowrie
June 2022
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Latest figures from Northern Ireland report more than 800 asbestos-related deaths between 2009 and 2020.
The Health and Safety Executive puts the number of asbestos-related deaths at around 5,000 deaths per year and death rates are expected to rise. In the article, an HSE spokesperson says that deaths "should decrease from the end of the decade" because two types of asbestos were banned in 1986 and the last type was banned in 1999.
Mesothelioma rates in Northern Ireland
The 2 directors at Keebar Construction have been given 14-month sentences, suspended for 2 years. Both have been ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid community work within 12 months and both have been suspended as directors for 10 years and ordered to pay costs of £44,774.21.
Yet another case comes to court where a company tries to cut corners and costs by not following health and safety guidelines concerning the management of asbestos.
The case, brought by the Health and Safety Executive, where one expert said it was “one of the worst cases of uncontrolled asbestos exposure that he had come across”, we hear of multiple workers being exposed during work to convert the old Joplings department store in Sunderland into student accommodation.
May 2022
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News coming out of the USA, published by E&E News reports an upsurge in asbestos imports from Brazil and China.
In the first 3 months of 2022, 114 metric tons of raw chrysotile asbestos (white asbestos) have been imported. Considering 100 metric tons were imported into the USA in the whole of 2021, this is a worrying statistic.
US import of white asbestos increases from 2021
Data looking at women's mortality rates from mesothelioma in the USA. A study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported in News Medical looked specifically at deaths during the period from 1999 to 2020 and categorised the deaths according to occupation. The highest number of deaths due to mesothelioma was observed in the health care and social assistance industry and the homemaker occupation.
Women's mortality rates from mesothelioma in the USA
A family based in Leeds seek answers to how dad of 3, Reginald Spence may have been exposed to asbestos during his working career. Reginald was employed at Yorkshire Copper Works, Leeds (now known as Yorkshire Imperial Metals Ltd) from 1964 - 1978.
In July 2020, Reginald experienced chest pain and sought his GP's advice. Sadly, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma and passed away on 24 August 2020.
Family of Leeds dad who died from mesothelioma seek answers
New drug abemaciclib offers hope to patients with mesothelioma - the cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
This article, published today in the Barking and Dagenham Post is quite shocking. The lack of awareness about the dangers of asbestos was widespread in the engineering industries in the 60s/70s and beyond.
Retired engineer looks back on working conditions at asbestos manufacturers
April 2022
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MPs today are calling on the Government and Health and Safety Executive to set a time frame of 40 years for the removal of all asbestos from public and commercial buildings.
It's estimated that there are some 300,000 buildings with asbestos present - including schools. The likelihood of asbestos disturbance is growing as buildings are renovated to meet net zero targets.
MPs call on Government and HSE to commit to asbestos removal time frame
Reported in Teesside Live this story will resonate with many. Joan Smith, an OAP based in Stockton,Teesside has mesothelioma - the cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. She didn't develop the cancer due to her own exposure to the toxic material. Her husband worked for ICI as an instrument artificer at the ICI Petrochemical Works in Billingham. Decades of washing Ronald's asbestos-ridden overalls meant Joan was unknowingly breathing in asbestos fibres.
Wife blames terminal cancer on washing her husband's work overalls
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) coordinates its Global Asbestos Awareness Week until 7 April.
In the UK alone, it's estimated each year, 5,000 people lose their lives to asbestos exposure (according to Health and Safety Executive data).
The World Health Organization estimates that around 125 million people in the world are exposed to asbestos at the workplace.
Global Asbestos Awareness Week 2022 runs until 7 April
March 2022
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The Asbestos Victims Support Group UK has won a landmark case against Cape, one of the UK's largest manufacturers of asbestos. Cape lobbied the UK government to downplay the dangers of asbestos from the 1950s onwards whilst its own research was exposing the exact opposite
UK asbestos manufacturer withheld information on asbestos risks to health
Not only did Lee Charles of Lincs Demolition Ltd dupe his customers into thinking that he was a licenced asbestos removal specialist but he also failed to dispose of materials safely and in accordance with regulations. Charles was handed a 12-month suspended jail sentence at Lincoln Crown Court.
Lincs man guilty of exposing public to asbestos
February 2022
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A Glasgow builder has been fined £350 and ordered to pay £3,314 in compensation for illegally dumping general and asbestos waste on private land in London Road, Glasgow. Having attempted to conceal the toxic material with fencing he returned the following day to dump even more.
Glasgow builder found guilty of dumping asbestos waste on private land
We reported last July that the widow of horn player, Christopher Larkin was suing the BBC for his exposure to asbestos whilst working at the BBC's Maida Vale studios. Damages amounting to £1.64m have now been paid by the BBC to 11 families of former staff who died from mesothelioma - a cancer related to prolonged exposure to asbestos.
BBC pays out to 11 families of former staff exposed to asbestos
January 2022
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After a Health and Safety Executive investigation, both the contractor and the building owner have been fined for safety breaches. In May 2017, Marius Andrus was working on fragile asbestos ceiling sheets when the roof gave way and he fell to his death. AJM Services (Midland) Ltd and Pearsons Glass have subsequently been found guilty of breaching safety regulations in hearings in February last year and this month.
Contractor and owner of building both fined by HSE for safety breaches
The Health and Safety Executive has fined both the managing director and a director of D&M Heritage Ltd, a printing company based in Huddersfield for breaching asbestos regulations. Having previously been alerted to the likelihood that free standing cupboards partly consisted of AIB (asbestos insulation board), the directors still sanctioned the removal and break up of said cupboards, releasing asbestos fibres.
MD and director both fined for breaches of asbestos regulations
The family of a man from Liverpool who died after a diagnosis of mesothelioma is appealing to ex-work colleagues to get in contact in a hope to find answers about how he may have been exposed to asbestos.
Family of Doug Ormsby appeal to ex-colleagues for asbestos exposure information
