Asbestos Roofing Health and Safety Issues
If you have problems with an asbestos roof on commercial premises, you already know that the remedy is likely to be expensive.
The reason isn’t so much the cost of the works, but the cost of the health and safety equipment required to do a job properly.
As building surveyors, we advise on all aspects of site safety, but nowhere is it as important as when working on asbestos roof projects.
Even now, in today’s safety conscious world, roofing workers are still being killed because of insufficient health and safety equipment.
When working on an asbestos roof, it is almost certain that scaffolding will be required, together perhaps, with specially constructed walking platforms, since asbestos cement sheets become brittle with age and it is very common for workers to fall through them, often with fatal consequences.
Therefore, in addition to the scaffolding (which in itself isn’t cheap), the inside of the premises have to be netted in order to prevent or reduce injury from somebody falling through from above.
If the premises are to remain “live” whilst a roofing contract is being undertaken, with staff and/or equipment remaining in place below, then additional safety netting has to be installed, to prevent debris falling into the workplace below.
The cost of this netting is expensive, but it is an essential safety component of any job.
A case in Birmingham in 2009 saw a roof worker fall through an asbestos cement roof to his death because no safety netting had been installed.
The CID arrested the directors of the company whose premises were being worked on, along with the directors of the roofing company, both of whom are now being sued for negligence and causing death.
An inspection by the HSE also discovered, that prior to the accident, the roof had been cleaned using a high pressure jet wash lance.
The result was that much of the cement content of the roofing panels was washed away, leaving exposed asbestos fibres in the workplace below, turning the job from being a relatively simple, non-licenced job into a major environmental clean by licenced contractors.
The directors in this case can probably expect a large fine, damages and quite probably, a custodial sentence.
Whilst working with an asbestos roof is not licensed at present, it is clear from this example (and many others), that such work should not be specified or undertaken by inexperienced people or firms.
If you are considering an asbestos roofing project on an industrial or commercial property, please call David Carter on 0121 711 7110 (Mon-Fri 8:30 – 6pm only).
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