British building workers’ union says workers are losing confidence in UK’s Health and Safety Executive to protect them from asbestos
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive is launching a new asbestos awareness campaign because the HSE feels plumbers, joiners and electricians underestimate the asbestos risk in their trades, but the building workers’ union claims that workers are losing their confidence in the HSE’s ability to protect them. Workers feel that, when asbestos problems are reported to the HSE, investigators don’t talk to the workers; they rely on reports from managers and tend to find the sites “safe.”
Others say that the HSE awareness campaign continues to underestimate the total risk from asbestos, and in underestimating the problem, they say, the government underestimates the resources that are needed to address it. They say only a tiny percentage of those who illegally handle asbestos and expose others to it are ever prosecuted.
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