Fife Council fined for failing to alert contractors of asbestos
In November 2007, contractors who were replacing water tanks at a block of 12 apartments in the UK disturbed brown asbestos, which they had not known about before starting the job. The apartments had to be evacuated.
Fife Council was fined £10,000 for failing to inform the builders, ECG Building Maintenance, of the presence of asbestos. A majority of the responsibility fell on Fife Council, which had two separate registers containing information about the property – a computerized record and a written record. Contractors were only provided information from the computerized records, which did not contain information about asbestos located in the attic area.
Tenants of the evacuated apartments have since been either relocated to new housing or returned to the affected Fraser Avenue apartments once asbestos remediation was completed. They have also been compensated for their material losses from the asbestos contamination.
Since the 2007 incident, Fife Council has reviewed its policies and procedures to prevent any similar incidents from happening in the future. Those who were unwittingly exposed to asbestos, however, may not know if there will be any negative health consequences for many years, as it can take many decades for asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma to manifest.
For the full story, go to BBC News.
