Mesothelioma Law Blog

Selfridges slammed for asbestos

 Department store Selfridges was slammed by the health and safety watchdog for "unbelievable" failings which left staff exposed to asbestos dust, it was revealed today.

Employees were allowed to walk into a contaminated area after the cancer-causing substance was uncovered by contractors working at the central London store in May 2007.

A memo from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to Westminster City Council shortly after the incident stated that an asbestos pipe had been disturbed due to an incorrect survey of the site.

Contractors were required to work on part of a basement that had not been assessed as part of the survey.

Lisa Chappell, inspector for the HSE, aired her concerns in an email to David Ball, a senior practitioner in the council's health and safety team.

In the letter she wrote: "Following the pulling down of of the pipe, several people from Selfridges, Davis Langdon (Selfridges' project consultants) and Ibex (the principal contractor) walked through the area on more than one occasion 'to see what had happened'."

She added that this was "unbelievable".

Breathing in asbestos can lead to serious health problems such as mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

In her memo to Westminster City Council, the HSE official noted: "The contaminated area is a room between a warehouse and staff locker rooms, both of which, I understand, continued to be used by staff.

"The walls to both areas were incomplete, with large holes on the warehouse side where duct work had been removed and mesh high up on the locker room side. In other words, even once the area was closed off, the air continued to move as it was not properly sealed off."

The memo was made public following a Freedom of Information request by The Independent.

A statement from Selfridges read: "We have made huge progress in the way we deal with asbestos when we encounter it in this 100-year-old building.

"The Type 2 survey has been completed and Apec, an HSE-recommended asbestos consultant, have people permanently on site working alongside our own team.

"The HSE has confirmed that they are happy with our processes and procedures. And we have a very good working relationship with Westminster Council, who tell us they are pleased with the asbestos-removal work we have done over the past few months."

"The safety of everyone in our building is more important than anything else and the procedures we now follow, agreed with the HSE and Westminster Council, reflect this and include communication, counselling and advice.

"Were we to receive a health-related claim from anyone who has worked on projects here, we would give this careful and appropriate consideration."

Army soldiers are concerned for their health after asbestos incident

The father of an Army soldier is worried about the health of his son and other soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg after it was revealed that asbestos was worked on without any protective equipment given.

Evon Colchiski said his son Private Jason Colchiski, 21, and other soldiers were ordered by a superior officer to remove floor tiles from a storeroom last week. The officer told them to be careful because there was asbestos under the tiles but did not give them any protective equipment to wear to prevent them from inhaling the hazardous dust fibers that could potentially be released.

After receiving a call from his son about the work, Mr. Colchiski called the base to speak to the officer who gave Jason the order to warn him about the risks of asbestos exposure.. Although the officer promised Mr. Colchiski that neither Jason nor any other soldier would be told to remove the tiles moving forward, Jason reported that he saw other soldiers finishing the work the next day.

After testing a tile sample in a laboratory shortly afterward and confirming that it contained a significant amount of asbestos, Mr. Colchiski contacted state health officials on Friday. Health officials sent an inspector to Fort Bragg later that day who had workers with proper gear seal off the area and filter the air in case asbestos fibers were present. Air samples were taken but results have not come back yet.

Private Jason Colchiski said the Army has promised to give him and the other soldiers involved annual check ups for the next five years. However, his father pointed out that it should be for longer since asbestos-related problems do not appear for decades.

Both the military and the state Division of Public health are continuing their investigations of the exposure incident.

Asbestos deaths set to rise

Tradesmen are being warned about the threat of a 'killer' in their industry.

Joiners, plumbers, electricians and maintenance workers in Lincolnshire are the target of a campaign by the Health and Safety Executive.

The Asbestos: The Hidden Killer drive aims to cut the number of work-related deaths in the county.

Handling of asbestos claims unchanged after judgment

Market practices for the payment of compensation under employers liability policies for the fatal asbestos-related condition mesothelioma are to remain unchanged after a legal challenge by a small group of runoff insurers failed.

In the High Court judgment in Municipal Mutual vs. Zurich Insurance & Others handed down Friday, Mr. Justice Burton sided with insurer Zurich Financial Services.

The case—known as employers liability trigger litigation—was one of six test cases heard in June and July this year.

The traditional approach to handling asbestos-related employee liability claims in the United Kingdom was based on the time of exposure. An employer and its insurer were typically liable to pay compensation for the proportion of time an employee was exposed to asbestos dust.

But the Court of Appeal ruling in the Bolton vs. Municipal Mutual & Commercial Union (2006)—which was concerned with public liability—said that an insurance policy would only pay out if it was in force at the time an individual fell ill, potentially many years after exposure. Several insurers had tried to apply the Bolton ruling to employers liability claims, and argued that policies were triggered by the development of the disease, rather than by the exposure to asbestos.

Zurich and 10 local authority defendants challenged this change in market practice.

“If we did not challenge this issue in court, then the compensation payments for the victims that were negligently exposed to asbestos would have been either significantly less than they should have been, or non-existent in cases where the insurer has ceased trading, or is insolvent,” said Iwan Borszcz, casualty claims director at Zurich U.K.

From Business Insurance

Don't Keep ANY Asbestos a Secret

Advice from the HSE is that if asbestos-containing material is in good condition and in a position where it cannot be disturbed or damaged, it is safer to leave it where it is and ensure that the risks are managed. Those responsible for managing building maintenance and repair of non-domestic buildings have a duty to inform tradesmen if asbestos is present in a building they are working in.

Depending on the type of asbestos-containing material, and providing they have been trained and the proper controls are in place, they may be able to work on the project. Asbestos sprayed coatings, board or lagging on pipes and boilers should only be tackled by licensed workers.
Source

Many Asbestos Workers Have False Credentials

A state EPD official who grew up in Coweta County says many of the people who work in asbestos removal have false documents.

Don McCarty, Northeast District manager for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, told members of White Oak Golden K in Newnan that Georgia has a number of regulations regarding asbestos -- including a requirement for people who work at asbestos removal to complete certain training. A certificate program shows a person has completed that training, but McCarty told the group of about 70 at the Special Events Center that many of the people who can produce a certificate have not actually earned one.

He said that when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency checked a site in Florida where 89 people were working, the EPA found a third of the workers had authentic certificates, a third were working with a bogus certificate and/or Social Security number and a third had certificates with the names of "people who were dead."
Arlington Christian School

Fake certificates are sometimes made for illegal aliens, and sometimes workers have multiple false certificates from different states.
Source

Wondering How You May Have Gotten Mesothelioma?

Several diseases are associated with exposure to asbestos. They include: malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis, pleural effusion, pleural plaques and thickening, and lung cancer. Prior to 1975 asbestos fibers were commonly used. You could have been exposed to asbestos while working at any number of different industries. Chief among the possibilities would be jobs at asbestos mining and milling plants, shipyards, fireproofing and heating, construction, automotive repair, insulation, pipefitting and boilermaking.

If you did not work in one of these industries or another that used asbestos, it is also possible that you could have been exposed if someone in your household worked with asbestos and carried asbestos fibers home on his or her clothing, hair or body. You may also have been exposed indirectly by living near asbestos mines.

Although it is true that most patients with malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer or other asbestos-related diseases likely had prolonged exposure to asbestos over a long period of time, it is also possible for one to develop one of these diseases from a brief exposure to asbestos.
More.

Asbestos Coming Naturally

The standard reaction to pollution is to blame the polluter - in most cases man and his activities. But what happens when the polluter is the environment? Recently, we have started to view the environment as a source of substances likely to be harmful to human health. A high-profile example of this 'natural pollution' is the contamination of groundwater by arsenic from natural sources in Bangladesh and India.

Another, less well-known problem is asbestos that occurs naturally in rock. Naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) is the name given to the silicate minerals serpentine and amphibole that, in certain environmental conditions, form exceedingly thin crystals in parallel alignment - with the appearance of cotton or silk. The term NOA can also be used to describe different minerals that crystallise in a finely fibrous manner resembling asbestos, and minerals that can produce elongated particles when broken or crushed.

If you have mesothelioma and need a mesothelioma lawyer visit the Mesothelioma attorney directory.