Environmental Essentials Newsletter

Environmental Essentials is proud to announce that we have successfully achieved accreditation for their North East office in Gateshead. The company now provides accredited inspection and testing services from each of our existing offices in Stoke-on-Trent, Glasgow and the Newcastle-upon-Tyne and currently employs over 70 staff nationwide.

Furthermore, recent success in securing large contracts in the Healthcare and Housing sectors in the North West has also allowed us to open our Bolton office as follows:

2010 is proving to be an exciting year so far for Environmental Essentials and we would like to thank all our clients and staff for their continued support.

So far this year Environmental Essentials has experienced a vast growth in terms of geographical spread and staffing levels. This month is no exception. Since our last newsletter we have grown all departments within the company and it is with pleasure that we introduce the following members of staff:

We welcome Tania Knight (Project Support / tenant Liaison) and Natalie Smyth (administrator) and Kara Crouch (Trainee Laboratory Technician) to our head office in Stoke. Our Gateshead is rapidly expanding to meet the needs of our domestic and local authority contracts and has been successful in recruiting Robbie Davison, Lesley Reed, Sam Whitup, Craig Cowell, Andrew Lawrie and Darren Critchley to the team. We also welcome Nichola Shaw to the laboratory team at our Bellshill office, Scotland.

The Dave Willcocks Asbestos Victim Support Group - Asbestos Awareness Training Event

Environmental Essentials and its nominated charity, The Dave Willcocks Asbestos Victim Support Group, (DWAVSG) are hosting an Asbestos Awareness Training course on 24th November 2010 at the Britannia Stadium Football Club in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Dave Willcocks Asbestos Victim Support Group was set up to assist all asbestos victims and families in the South Cheshire, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent area. The primary aim of this event is to raise awareness amongst tradesmen that they are more at risk than they think from asbestos. The event also aims to encourage tradesmen to find out more about asbestos and the precautions they should be taking.

Places will be charged at just £25.00 per person and places will be on a first come first served basis. All monies will go directly to this charity.

If you would like to reserve your place or require any further information please contact Rosie on 0845 4569953 or email rgreer@environmentalessentials.co.uk

Asbestos Seminars - HSG 264 Asbestos The Surveyors Guide

As detailed in previous newsletters, following the release of HSG 264 Asbestos The Surveyors Guide, which replaced the MDHS 100 on 29th January 2010 Environmental Essentials are running a series of seminars to provide a general overview of the requirements of this guidance, with particular reference to the duties placed on the Client.

30^th September - Brook Crabwall Manor Hotel, Chester
28^th October - Novotel Nottingham

EEL’s Seminars cost just £35.25 per person and include refreshments.

If you would like to book your place(s) or would like further information please contact Rosie on 0845 4569953 or email rgreer@environmentalessenitals.co.uk.

Diary of Events

Who should attend? ‘All employees whose work could anticipate exposure to asbestos' (Reg.10 - Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006), this course is aimed at all delegates from company directors, managers and supervisors to tradesmen, engineers and contractors. Places are charged at just £75.00 + vat per person and includes refreshments.

Designed for those with ‘duty to manage’ responsibilities for asbestos management within the workplace and specifically for duty-holders under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006. The course provides comprehensive information on how to assess whether premises contain asbestos, how to assess the risks from asbestos and how to manage those risks. Places are charged at £295.00 + Vat per person and includes refreshments and lunch.

Who should attend? Anyone who may be required to undertake minor work on ACMs during their working day. Aimed at personnel such as roofing contractors, demolition workers and general maintenance staff. Places are charged at just £150.00 + vat per person and includes refreshments.

Shock as schools found to have no asbestos safety plans
BY ANDREW PENMAN ON AUG 13, 10 10:41 AM IN HEALTH AND SAFETY

We can see why union staff were shocked to learn that some schools weren't doing enough to ensure staff and children were safe from asbestos.

Left alone, it shouldn't do any harm, but once you start sticking drawing pins in the stuff, or ripping it out during improvement works, then the dust can get anywhere and exposure can be fatal.

That's why it is vital to know where asbestos is, and have plans in place to deal with it. Yet now we hear from Unison that four schools run by Waltham Forest Council, east London, don't have such plans in place.

According to Unison: "A Health and Safety Executive inspector visited Henry Maynard Infants and Juniors, Kelmscott and Willowfield Schools and found that 'none of the four schools visited had an asbestos management plan'."

The council had also failed to act to reduce the risk of legionnaires disease arising from the possible presence of legionella bacteria in the schools' water systems.

The Health & Safety Executive also warned that as all four schools visited failed they are concerned this situation may be replicated throughout the borough.

Britain's youngest ever victim of a killer cancer linked to asbestos has died after a heartbreaking five-year battle against the disease.

Brave Sophie Ellis was just 13 when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma and given months to live.

But she defied the doctors' predictions and fought the disease until her death at 18 surrounded by her family.

Despite being desperately ill, she spoke movingly about her ordeal last year in support of the Mirror's Asbestos Timebomb campaign and her startling story proved an inspiration.

She said: "The cancer has made me braver in a way. It was pretty tough being diagnosed at such a young age and the surgery was painful.

The cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme could increase the risk of children, teachers and support staff being exposed to asbestos, TUC union officials have warned

Many existing school buildings are likely to contain asbestos, as they were built before 1970, when the material was in common use. As these buildings fall into disrepair, the risk of asbestos exposure increases significantly.

The number of teachers who have died from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma has increased by more than 300 per cent in the last 20 years, according to the TUC campaigners. More worryingly, they point out that children exposed to asbestos are five times more likely to develop mesothelioma than adult teachers in the same environment.

The TUC Asbestos Support and Campaign Group is further alarmed by the fact that many schools have spent little on maintenance, on the promise that they would be part of the previous Labour government’s BSF programme, which aimed to rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England.

The Group claims that new Education secretary Michael Gove’s decision to halt the BSF scheme has scuppered the plans of nearly 100 schools in the north of England (six in Cumbria and 93 in the North East) to move forward with a new-build programme.

As public spending is being squeezed, the Northern TUC Asbestos Campaign Group is calling for continued investment in school buildings to prevent asbestos exposure. Kevin Rowan, regional secretary of the Northern TUC, said: “Many schools in the region are in a terrible state of disrepair. Teachers, governing bodies, pupils and parents have been waiting desperately for new building work to take place, to allow them to enjoy working and learning in a decent, safe and healthy environment. “Now they continue to face risks of serious and potentially fatal hazards due to the lack of investment in the maintenance and improvement of their schools. The Government must make funds available now to all schools who need it, to secure a better and safer environment for children, teachers and school staff alike.” Mick Lyons, national executive member of teachers’ union NASUWT for the North East, described the presence of asbestos in schools as “a ticking time bomb”. He added: “Over 190 colleagues have died through asbestos exposure across the country so far, with the unfortunate spectre of many more to come. Scrapping the BSF programme has left older schools – and those who have to spend time in them – extremely vulnerable.”

Paul Rowen MP, who served as the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson on health and safety prior to the formation of the coalition government, told SHP that he feels the BSF programme is “an expensive way to remodel and refurbish schools” but stressed that the removal of asbestos in schools should be “an immediate priority”. He went on: “The Government needs to stop brushing it under the carpet, which has been done by successive governments in the past, and accept that [removal of asbestos] has to be done. You either do it as part of the Building Schools for the Future programme, or you do it as part of another programme – but it needs to be done.”

Construction union UCATT believes the Government is planning to renege on a commitment by the previous Labour administration to fund medical research into the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

The union’s fears were raised after it learned of a seemingly cagey response from the Department of Health, when quizzed on the issue by Labour MP Stephen Hepburn.

Mr Hepburn asked the Health Secretary if he would support and provide funding for the establishment of a national centre for asbestos-related disease (NCARD), and what the policy is on increasing expenditure on research into asbestos-related disease.

Replying last week on the Secretary’s behalf, a written answer by Mr Burns said the National Cancer Research Institute has been tasked with carrying out a review of research into mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

He explained: “The outcome of the review will inform the future strategies and work of the Institute's partner funders, and help develop the potential to build research capacity and increase research investment in asbestos-related diseases. The review is due to report in the autumn.”

He added: “Future levels of expenditure on research in asbestos-related diseases will be determined by the success of relevant bids for funding.”

Reacting to the minister’s response, UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie described the Government’s apparent failure to honour the commitment to fund the NCARD as “sickening but unsurprising”.

Added Mr Hepburn: “This is another kick in the teeth for workers who have been exposed to asbestos. Mesothelioma is currently incurable; it is disgraceful that the Government will not honour a commitment to invest in research to develop a cure, or for more effective treatment for this awful disease.”

However, a Department of Health spokesperson disputed the suggestion that it was backtracking on the NCARD, insisting: “The idea of creating a research centre for asbestos-related disease was raised with the previous administration but no agreement was reached.”

Speaking on the issue in February, the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the UK must become “a global leader in research into asbestos-related disease” and that research must be expanded, but the centre itself appears not to have been set in stone.

However, a pledge by Mr Straw to compensate certain people affected by a ruling denying pleural-plaques sufferers a right to damages is now under way, in the shape of the Pleural Plaques Former Claimants Payment Scheme.

The scheme, which opened for applications on 2 August, was announced after the Labour government, following consultation and the consideration of expert reports, decided not to overturn the Law Lords’ decision that the existence of pleural plaques does not constitute actionable damage under the civil law.

To soften the blow to those who had already begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation before the Law Lords’ ruling, Mr Straw said such people would be eligible to one-off payments of £5000.

Environmental Essentials
Asbestos Management Services and Training Provider
Management and Refurbishment/Demolition Asbestos Surveys
Project Management Services and Audit
HSE/BOHS and UKATA approved training.
Bulk sampling and fibre analysis for asbestos content
Four-Stage clearance procedure for site re-occupation
Priority Risk Assessment
Computer based record system - Client instant access to records and surveys on-line
Supervisory License Holder