Horror Stories

Within this page you will find several asbestos-related horror stories. Sometimes the subject of the need for asbestos management is better-explained through real-life examples of where lack of focus has resulted in damage to companies and people.

Woolworths in asbestos scare

August 14th 2005

WOOLWORTHS faces a nationwide investigation by health and safety officers into allegations that staff and. customers in its High Street stores may have been put at risk from deadly asbestos dust.

Most of the struggling High Street chain's ageing 800 stores have fire retardant ceiling tiles made from asbestos that were fitted at least 40 years ago. The stores are officially regarded as contaminated, but because the undersides of the tiles are coated and the roof space sealed, they are considered safe"

However, during a massive project to upgrade stores, .the roof space has been opened up and some tiles replaced. Councils in Tiverton and Bideford in Devon are within days of deciding whether to mount a prosecution over working practices.

Sources familiar with Woolworths said asbestos had been a major Worry for the group for many years. 'It makes full refurbishments hideously expensive,' said one.

The probe involving Woolworths, a specialist contractor brought into replace ceiling tiles, and a Government-approved lab that checks safety has been going on in the South-West for 17 months. Now officials have contacted counterparts around the country to alert them in case breaches have occurred at other stores.

Lee Hipgrave, director of LCH Contracts, which replaced tiles, said the investigation had put his business under severe strain and he feels unfairly targeted.

''This was my biggest-ever deal and it has become, a nightmare," he said. "I wish that the prosecution would either start or it be firmly stated that it will not take place so that 1 can clear my name."

A spokeswoman for Woolworths said it was unable to comment as the investigation was continuing.

Dust flies in Woolworths asbestos row

It’s been several months since Apax, the private-equity firm, ended its courtship of Woolworths by publicly implying that something was decidedly smelly about the retailer.

Although investors and analysts appear convinced that there is no black hole in Woolies’ accounts, I can reveal there is an ugly surprise in store after all. Woolies and a contractor are being accused by Devon county council of endangering staff and the public by exposing them to poisonous fibres in asbestos panels.
Now chief executive Trevor Bish-Jones faces embarrassing legal proceedings, due to start next week.

The council’s health-and-safety experts say strict asbestos-removal rules were ignored at stores in Tiverton and Bideford in April.

It is alleged that asbestos- removal firm LCH simply tore down the panels without creating a safe vacuum, causing poisonous dust to fall on products, which staff unwittingly cleared up. Woolies, along with LCH, faces a long and expensive row — and this could just be the start. LCH had worked on 400 stores before arriving in Devon.
LCH blames Woolies. And Woolworths said: “The health and safety of our staff and customers is of paramount importance. We are working to resolve the matter.”

£48,000 fine for failure to manage asbestos

8 July 2005 - Case report

Two companies have been fined a total of £48,000 after workers were exposed to asbesto fibres during refurbishment work.

Huntsman Advanced Materials (UK) Ltd of Cambridgeshire and co-defendant Patrick B Doyle Ltd of Newmarket, Suffolk, pleaded guilty to breaching section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, in that they failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees.

Huntsman Advanced Materials (UK) Ltd also pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 11 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 for failing to properly carry out its duties as a client, and Patrick B Doyle Ltd pleaded guilty to a breach of regulation 3(1) of the Asbestos (Licensing) Regulations 1983 as amended, for carrying out work with asbestos insulating board whilst not in possession of a licence for such work.

Cambridge Magistrates fined Huntsman, which manufactures chemicals, materials and adhesives, £25,000 and ordered it to pay £8,408 in costs, and Patrick B Doyle Ltd, the building contractor employed by Huntsman to carry out the refurbishment work at its premises, was fined £23,000 and ordered to pay £8,478 costs.

The HSE investigating inspector Stephen Manley said:
"This case highlights the duty of both contractors and clients to manage asbestos in the workplace ... Exposure of employees to asbestos dust can be easily avoided by carrying out a proper and thorough assessment using building plans and papers from previous works carried out to the structure. These must be made available to contractors."

Surge in British asbestos claims will cost billions

Insurers and employers face huge bill over next 30 years

Rupert Jones
Tuesday November 2, 2004
The Guardian

A surge in asbestos-related claims over the coming decades could land British insurers and employers with a bill of up to £20bn, according to research by actuaries published yesterday.

The study nails the myth that asbestos is "yesterday's problem" with its prediction that as many as 200,000 new insurance claims from British workers who were exposed to the deadly mineral are expected over the next 30 years or so.

The long history of a lethal dust

by Dr Thomas Stuttaford
August 01, 2005

THE DUKE OF WESTMINSTER has been confronted with the news that even his Belgravia estate has been marked by the use of asbestos.

Because asbestos began to have an important role in housing, shipbuilding and industry only in the late 1890s, there is a tendency to assume that it didn’t exist before then. In fact it was mined more than 2,000 years ago in the Italian Alps.

The Romans made it into cloth that was used for cremation — it combined well with the ashes of the dead. There were also more cheerful uses for asbestos, even at that time, with the wicks of the Roman vestal virgins’ lamps being made from it. Later, the Emperor Charlemagne had a tablecloth woven from asbestos, as he liked to be able to clean it by passing it through fire without damaging the fibre.

In the 90 years between the 1880s and 1970s, world production of asbestos had risen from 500 tons to nearly four million tons and it was employed in building, engineering, car manufacture, shipbuilding, lagging and a host of other industries. Hundreds of thousands of workers were exposed to asbestos dust before its hazards were realised.

The first, and perhaps most alarming, of the conditions that can develop through contact with asbestos is asbestosis. This is a form of lung damage in the same category as the coalminers’ pneumoconiosis. The patient becomes slowly and insidiously more breathless and their ability to exercise deteriorates progressively after long years of exposure to asbestos dust. Eventually they can breathe only with the help of oxygen.

The condition is made worse if the patient also smokes, in which case they are likely to develop chronic bronchitis and emphysema, with breathlessness accompanied by coughing and wheezing.

Those with asbestosis are more likely to develop lung cancer if they are also smokers; if they are not smokers and still develop lung cancer, the tumour is likely to spread more quickly