A company supervisor who exposed his workers to deadly asbestos while they were working at Trafford College without suitable protection was fined on Friday.
The supervisor of Manchester-based company Winsulate, Steven Kelly, 41 from Kirkby in Merseyside has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after ignoring the company’s procedures on working with asbestos.
Kelly exposed his colleagues to potentially-deadly fibres and was fined £790 after Trafford Magistrates’ Court heard how a HSE inspector carried out an unannounced visit to the college, on Talbot Road on the evening of December 12, 2012.
The inspectors discovered that Mr Kelly had sent the men into the undercroft to fix the temporary lighting, but they were not wearing disposable clothing under their overalls, and only had half masks instead of the appropriate respiratory masks.
HSE Inspector Laura Moran said after the hearing: “He simply should never have allowed three men to go into a contaminated area while wearing their own clothes, and without the correct protective clothing and respiratory masks.”
Although Mr Kelly is fully-trained and qualified in licensed asbestos removal, it came to the attention of the inspectors that he also failed to carry out necessary daily checks on masks.
Ms Moran also states that the actions of Mr Kelly could have also put the men’s families at risk due to fibres attaching themselves to the workers clothing.
She said: “Thankfully, we were able to stop the work and make sure the clothes were disposed of as contaminated waste.”
As well as being fined £790, Mr Kelly has also been ordered to pay costs of £250 after pleading guilty to a breach of Health and Safety at Work act.
The lasting symptoms of breathing in asbestos fibres can lay dormant for several decades, but each year around 4,000 people die after the fibres become lodged in their lungs or digestive tract, leading to cancer and other diseases.
Information on how to work safely with asbestos is available at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos
Picutre courtesy of Armand van der Merwe via Flickr, with thanks.
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