| Employers Must Do More to Protect Staff
TUC - 26 February, 2007
In advance of Mesothelioma Action Day tomorrow (Tuesday), the TUC is calling on employers to protect workers against the terrible disease which kills over 2,000 people every year.
Although the supply and use of asbestos has now been banned in the UK, it is still found in an estimated one and a half million workplaces. Many employers do not even know it is are there. As a result, maintenance and other workers can be exposed if they work in areas where asbestos is present, often ripping out or drilling into material containing asbestos and breathing in the potentially fatal fibres.
However this exposure can be prevented if employers simply obey the law and find out if there is asbestos on their premises, says the TUC. Then they can make sure that it is clearly marked to prevent anyone working on or near the dangerous material. Damaged asbestos material should always be removed.
Unfortunately this is not happening, and there are currently insufficient safety inspectors in the UK to make sure that every employer has checked for asbestos. This means that thousands of maintenance, building and demolition workers are being put at unnecessary risk.
To help prevent this the TUC has got together with the Health and Safety Executive to produce guidance for union safety representatives on how to keep workplaces safe from asbestos.
Nigel Costley, the South West TUC's Regional Secretary, said: 'No worker's life should be put at risk by employers who just cannot be bothered to get a simple survey done. We urge all safety representatives to make sure that their workplace has been checked, and that proper control measures are in place, including providing information and training to both staff and any contractors on asbestos."
* re-produced with kind permission of ARCA |
