Archive for June, 2010
Asbestos Threat Underestimated In The UK
More than half of work-related deaths from six major cancers in the UK are due to asbestos, according to a recent London-based public health report, and estimates are greater than those currently used in UK health and safety strategy planning.
Asbestos Awareness Courses
It often seems that the official attitude to the continuing deadly dangers of asbestos are wholly negative. The highlighting of countless number of long, drawn out cases battling for mesthelioma compensation against former employers, insurers and defendants lawyers belies the good work being carried out by many organisations and concerned groups.
It has been often asserted that the raising of asbestos awareness in recent years, combined with the pressure to reform legislation and asbestosis lawyers pushing harder to obtain asbestos compensation for their long suffering clients has meant companies are taking their duty of care to their employees more seriously.
Asbestos is the biggest single cause of occupational death in the UK. Of the six million tonnes of asbestos imported into the country, a huge amount came from Canadian mines. The federal government in Ottawa and the provincial government in Quebec have aided and abetted the Canadian asbestos industry to create a global climate in which the sale of this natural resource – an acknowledged carcinogen – can continue. Canada continues to sell asbestos in the developing world. 98% of Bangladesh’s asbestos imports in 2008 came from Canada and 93% of the Philippines asbestos imports.
A Cornwall development company, Norwegian Homes Limited, has been fined £4,500 for failing to undertake a survey for the presence of dangerous asbestos fibres when demolishing a Hotel.