Union attacks Health and Safety Executive over asbestos risk to workers

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities

A leading trade union criticised the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today, claiming that workers were losing confidence in its role of protecting them against illness and injury.

The building workers' union Ucatt made the complaint as the HSE launched a new awareness campaign warning of the continued danger of asbestos in the workplace.

Around 4,000 people a year are dying from the effects of asbestos and that figure is likely to increase, with one in four victims former tradesmen.

The HSE fears plumbers, electricians and joiners underestimate the risk.

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of Ucatt, said: "The information campaigns organised by the HSE are all very well. Unfortunately, when it comes to workers reporting concerns of working with asbestos, there is a very different story.

"When investigating these complaints, rather than talk to the workers whose health is being put at risk, they instead simply speak to the management, who invariably give the organisation a clean bill of health.

"Our members are rapidly losing confidence in the HSE's role of protecting them at work."

Ucatt officials said they feared the figures published by the HSE were an under-estimate of the true scale of the problem.

The union voiced "deep concern" earlier this month about the role of the HSE in investigating allegations that workers and tenants of a housing association in Carlisle had needlessly been exposed to asbestos.

Ucatt said the HSE failed to properly investigate "serious concerns" raised and complained that officials simply talked to management.

Mr Ritchie said there had been a "huge loss of confidence" with the HSE over the issue.

A Ucatt spokesman added: "The HSE are correct to highlight the dangers. However, their campaign is in effect about how to work safely with asbestos.

"Our message, which is far simpler and easier to understand, is don't work with asbestos. We are talking about a deadly substance and confusion can kill."

Professor Rory O'Neill of Stirling University's Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group said the HSE's figures were a "woeful" underestimate of the true scale of the problem.

"A more realistic figure would be 5-6,000, but if you include all asbestos-related cancer deaths it would be nearer 10,000 deaths a year.

"It is a bigger problem than the HSE says and welcome as any information campaign is, they should not be underestimating the risks to the population as a whole.

"An increasing number of cases now involve people who lived adjacent to factories or came into contact with asbestos through other people's clothing.

"We are looking at a growing epidemic and there should be a more proactive approach from the HSE."

Prof O'Neill said the HSE faced "dwindling" resources, with fewer staff to investigate complaints and carry out safety checks.

"Employers know this. The proportion of cases where people break safety laws and face prosecution is minuscule. If you underestimate the problem, you underestimate the resources needed to deal with it.

"It would be churlish not to welcome this campaign, but it is far too little, far too late."

Meanwhile, health and safety experts today supported a Private Member's Bill aimed at reducing workplace accidents by incorporating awareness into the education system.

George Howarth (Labour, Knowsley North and Sefton East) said he wanted to improve young people's health and safety skills, adding: "We know that inexperience leads to an increased risk of workplace injury and sadly over the last decade, 64 of those killed at work were under 19-years-old, 15,000 in this age group suffered major injuries and a further 50,000 were hurt.

"Consequently, it's vital that we look to incorporate health and safety awareness into education before our young people begin work-based learning or start work, and that we provide adequate supervision and induction training, so that fewer lives are avoidably damaged."

Ray Hurst, president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said: "Tragic accidents are much more likely to happen when people are ill prepared for employment through a lack of health and safety education, awareness and training.

"Skimping on safety has a very negative human impact. It's imperative that everyone is well equipped for the world of work, from young people on work experience to older people returning back.

"We fully support George Howarth in his efforts to embed relevant health and safety in our education system, as mandatory parts of national, vocational and professional curricula."

According to figures published by the HSE today, 20 tradesmen die every week from asbestos-related diseases, which was set to increase.

Steve Coldrick, director of the HSE's disease reduction programme, said: "We need to educate tradesmen about how asbestos and its dangers are relevant to them. We want them to change the way they work so that they don't put their lives at risk.

"Exposure to asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths, with around 4,000 people a year dying from asbestos-related disease.

"The overall number of deaths is rising because a large number of workers who have already been exposed to asbestos dust around 40 years ago will go on to develop mesothelioma, a terminal cancer or other asbestos-related diseases."

Jill Morrell, head of public affairs at the British Lung Foundation,
said: "The HSE campaign is vital because research shows that only one in 10 tradesmen know that exposure to asbestos can prove fatal.

"The asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma is a cruel disease which as yet has no cure. We must do all we can to prevent more people dying from this preventable disease."