By Lars Niven

FIFE COUNCIL has been fined £10,000 for a breach of the Health and Safety At Work Act which led to workmen and council tenants being exposed to deadly brown asbestos.

The local authority was severely criticised at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday for failing to warn contractors there could be asbestos in flats in Inverkeithing.

Workmen went into the attics of two blocks in Fraser Avenue and cut up steel water tanks that had been coated with asbestos, sending fibres flying into the air.

In one of the blocks, fibres escaped into the stairwell used by the public and residents of the council-owned properties.

The occupants of the blocks had to be quarantined for their own safety while a specialist was called in to clean up.

Sheriff Ian Dunbar heard the tenants were moved out several hours later and put up in hotels, before eventually being rehoused.

All of their belongings were destroyed due to the risk of contamination.

The company which carried out the work, Blantyre’s ECG Building Maintenance Ltd, was fined £3700 after it admitted two breaches of the same act.

ECG pled guilty late last month to failing to provide and maintain a safe system of working to control the risk of exposure to and the spread of asbestos, as a result of which its employees, Alan Murray, Michael Shaw and Alexander Douglas, were exposed to asbestos.

It also admitted a charge of failing to ensure effective measures to prevent the spread of asbestos, as a result of which residents and the public were exposed to it.

Fife Council had already admitted a charge of failing to provide and maintain a safe system of working to control the risk of exposure to and the spread of asbestos, as a result of which residents and ECG employees were exposed to asbestos.

The offences were committed at 38 to 48 and 50 to 60 Fraser Avenue on November 20 and 21, 2007.

Depute fiscal Louise Ward told Sheriff Dunbar, “The tanks in two lofts were cut up in situ by employees of ECG to enable their removal and were subsequently found to have been coated in amosite asbestos.

“This coating, which is a class one carcinogen (a cancer causing agent) and extremely harmful to humans if it becomes airborne, became dislodged during the cutting of the tanks.

“In the case of one tank, it was carried down the central public staircase to the rear of the property. Asbestos residue was then later swept up from within this stairwell by ECG staff, generating further harmful levels of fibres.

“Subsequent testing showed that high levels of asbestos remained within the stairwell to which members of the public were then exposed over the following 18 to 20 hours before the nature of the risk was discovered.”

It was only when one of the young workmen involved in cutting up the second tank voiced concern that the alarm was raised.

Miss Ward said the presence of asbestos could have been identified before the work began, but that failed to happen.

The ECG workmen should also have been given training so that they could have recognised the risks.

They had no idea the tanks in both blocks, which date back to about 1950, were coated with asbestos.

Miss Ward said inhalation of asbestos fibres could lead to illnesses such as lung cancer.

Solicitor Margaret McFadden, representing Fife Council, said, “The local authority comes before the court today pleading guilty to an offence which arose as a result of failures of policy and procedures.

“It was not a deliberate disregard for the safety of others.

The local authority recognise that these failures should not have occurred and it apologises unreservedly to those who were affected.”

She added, “Despite these failures, as soon as Fife Council became aware of the problem they acted quickly and responsibly to ensure that any exposure was contained and to ensure the safety of the residents of Fraser Avenue.”

In all 13 people, including nine adults and four children from 38 to 48 Fraser Avenue, had to be rehoused.

The incident cost the council £213,000, including more than £100,000 in compensation to residents. Its procedures for dealing with asbestos have been reviewed.

Robert Fife, solicitor for ECG, said, “ECG appear before this court as a first offender with an unblemished record.

“It is very important to note that ECG do not ‘do’ asbestos—that is not part of their operation.”

He said the company was not notified of any asbestos risk, but accepted its staff should have had training to identify any risks.

A report by an expert suggested the risk to the two ECG employees cutting up the tank was “very small,” to their supervisor “even lower” and to the residents “much less.”

Sheriff Dunbar said “the major share of responsibility” for the incident “must lie with Fife Council.”

“The council simply did not alert ECG to the fact that there may have been asbestos in any of these blocks of flats.

“Had the council checked the appropriate records they would have found that there had been no inspection by contractors on their behalf because they could not get access.”