Newsletter September 2018

Kent County Council (KCC) has been fined £200,000 after asbestos was disturbed in a primary school in Sittingbourne

Canterbury Crown Court heard that environmental health officers from the council were carrying out a routine food inspection at Lansdowne Primary School’s kitchen in November 2014 when they discovered asbestos rope hanging from the kitchen ceiling.

An investigation by the HSE found that the school’s caretaker had disturbed the asbestos during the removal of an air steriliser the previous year and that none of the staff at the school were trained in asbestos management or awareness. The council had also failed to control the risk of exposure and the school were served with a prohibition notice and the council with a hefty fine.

They were instructed to advise and train employees and was ordered to pay the fine plus costs of £21,500 within one month.

The school headteacher had also been found to have ticked boxes stating that the caretaker had received asbestos training in 2012 and 2013 when in fact he said that he had not received any training. The HSE inspectors acknowledged the council had implemented a system but there were insufficient checks to ensure it was being implemented.

AW Safety Management – can provide Asbestos Awareness Training and online RoSPA & IATP approved Asbestos Awareness courses, call 01623 821516 or email: training@awsafety.co.uk for more details or a course overview.

Every day construction activities such as; cutting paving slabs, kerb stones, concrete or other stone products produces enormous amounts of dust. This dust contains very fine particles called respirable crystalline silica (RCS). Exposure to RCS dust can cause serious long-term health problems which may eventually prove to be fatal.

Stones, rocks, sands and clays used in the production of kerbs, flags, bricks, tiles and concrete also contain large amounts of crystalline silica which when disturbed through the various workplace activities have the very real ability to contaminate the workplace atmosphere.

Cutting these materials can produce copious amounts of airborne dust containing the very fine RCS particles. In light of the fact that RCS dust is not always visible even in normal lighting and when proper safety risk assessment measures and PPE equipment is not in use, these tiny airborne particles once inhaled can penetrate deep into the lungs resulting in serious health effects, such as lung cancer or silicosis, both of which can result from unprotected and repeated exposure to RCS.

Silica causes a stiffening and scarring of the lungs called Silicosis, this condition if it worsens can result in the affected person becoming so breathless they could eventually be deemed as disabled. Silicosis also increases the risk of serious debilitating lung infections such as Tuberculosis (TB). This usually follows many years of exposure and is irreversible, but exceptionally high exposures over a few months or years can also be equally responsible for a rapid onset of these symptoms.

Personal Protective Equipment
Even with the use of water suppression or extraction, suitable RPE with an assigned protection factor of at least 20 will still be needed, for example either FFP3 filtering facepieces or orinasal respirators with P3 filters. All wearers of PPE should be appropriately trained and face fit tested regularly for the equipment used to do their daily jobs. Nuisance-grade dust masks do not protect your lungs!

AW Safety Management can provide you with the with affordable safety measures necessary with training and tools to help protect your workforce.
Take a look at our latest PPE catalogue to receive 25% discount off your first PPE order.

AW Safety Management Health surveillance services include but are not limited to:
* Facefit testing £100.00 for the first 4 ppl then £25.00 pp thereafter
* Health surveillance screening services available – Price on application

Contact: 01623 821516 or email: training@awsafety.co.uk for more details.

Could a Fire Risk Assessment and Sprinklers have saved this school?

Great News!
We’ve expanded our training capacity

AW Safety Management are pleased to announce the opening of our new additional 18 seat training room.

Contact us for all your H&S training needs. See our “offers of the month”

Call 01623 821516 or email training@awsafety.co.uk for more details…… online booking coming soon….. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook.

Work placements for young people are a vital component to their education and training allowing them to gain key skills to assist them in the workplace, but often companies are wary of participating in such schemes as they feel it is ‘too risky’.  The truth is that having an individual on a work placement is not going to put your business at risk and you do not need to be doing extra ‘health and safety’ because of it, although you will need to ensure your Employers’ Liability Insurance covers you for work placements, if not you will need to inform your insurance company of your intentions.

As part of the process for being accepted to have a work placement from a college or school a company can expect to be visited and an assessment be performed to ensure that the work placement is going to be in a safe working environment.

The assessor will be looking at the general suitability of the company as well as
a) the supervision of the individual – this is often the hardest bit as a company will need to ensure that the individual is supervised and the level of supervision will depend on the individual’s needs and experience
b) emergency arrangements and
c) the health and safety standards and attitude within the company.  Part of this is ensuring that the risks to the individual are managed as far as reasonably practicable.

To enable work placement assessors to be competent in their role and comfortable in assessing risks here at AW Safety Management we have a tailored course that not only give the assessor an understanding of what is required from them, but also incorporates the Level 2 Award in Principles of Risk Assessment, with the focus being around work placements.
Next available course is running on 3^rd October 2018 £75.00+ vat pp.
For more information about the course or to book a place please contact 01623 821516 or email training@awsafety.co.uk