A local authority and its contractor have been fined after a worker left a family exposed to dangerous asbestos fibres for three days.

City of Lincoln Council and County Waste (Lincs) Ltd were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after allowing asbestos insulation boards to be incorrectly removed.

Lincoln Magistrates' Court heard that in June 2008 the city council was refurbishing the bathroom of a property in Winn Street in the city and contracted County Waste (Lincs) Ltd to investigate the fixing of asbestos insulation boards, with a view to their removal. However, County Waste (Lincs) Ltd was not licensed to work with asbestos.

The employee carrying out the work lacked adequate information or training about the hazards from exposure to asbestos. The court was told he simply prised off the panels with a crowbar, breaking them in the process, before putting the pieces in a sack to transport to a yard for disposal.

Broken panels and pieces of asbestos debris were left on the bathroom floor of the property, and the worker walked around for the rest of the day in clothing that may have been contaminated with asbestos fibres.
City of Lincoln Council was fined £10,000 and County Waste (Lincs) Ltd, of Exchange Road, Lincoln, was fined £4,250 and ordered to pay costs of £12,000 and £6,000 respectively after pleading guilty to a number of health and safety breaches.

Source: HSE