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Heating engineer fined after homeowners put at risk of asbestos exposure
A self employed heating engineer has been fined after removing
asbestos lagged pipework in a domestic property with no precautions
to prevent exposure to asbestos fibres.
Karl Locher was employed to install a new heating system in the
domestic property. He removed the redundant pipework that was
lagged with asbestos, using a powered electric saw. He then
transported the pipework through the property and deposited it
outside on the drive.
The Court heard that Karl Locher did not have any asbestos
awareness training. HSE told the court that had Karl Locher been
appropriately trained, he would have been in a position to
recognise that the lagging may be asbestos. He would have known to
avoid any work until it had been demonstrated as asbestos free or
been removed by a licensed contractor. Instead, Locher removed the
pipes with no precautions to prevent his own exposure to asbestos
fibres, and the potential for other persons to be exposed. The
homeowners have had to move out of their home pending thorough
decontamination of the whole property.
Any work being carried out on a building built before 2000, that
disturbs the fabric of a building, such as pipework throughout, or
ceiling/wall movement requires an Asbestos Refurb survey prior
to starting work. Had this been carried out, it may have been
possible to work round the Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs) or
enable the removal to be carried out more cost effectively.
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