A firm has been fined £4,000 after admitting breaching health
and safety regulations that left five workers exposed to asbestos
at a busy shopping centre.
Such breaches are taken seriously by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) as exposure to
asbestos, which is one of greatest causes of work-related
deaths in the UK, is one of the main causes of
mesothelioma, which is quite a rare cancer.
The five were working at the Arndale Centre in Manchester when
they came into contact with the potentially deadly fibres which had
been used in ceiling panels.
Two of the workers were exposed while ripping out old shop
fittings at a retail unit and the other three were managers at the
centre whose duties including checking progress on the
refurbishment.
Eastern Regional Shopfitters Ltd, of Norman Way Industrial
Estate in Over near Cambridge, admitted three breaches of the
Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 and one of the Health and
Safety at Work Act 1974 in the hearing at Trafford Magistrates'
Court.
As well as the fine, the firm was told to pay £3,215 towards the
cost of the prosecution, which was brought by the HSE.