THE council was today fined £14,000 after its employees were exposed to asbestos at a school.
City of Edinburgh Council joiners were cutting a hole in a door from Castlebrae Community High School when white dust suspected to be the deadly cancer-causing substance was discovered.
The city's sheriff court heard in February 2007 the school in
itiated a project to turn the physics room into a hairdressing salon.
Part of the project required viewing panels to be cut in the doors.
The doors had been removed from the school to the Council joiner's workshop at Murrayburn Road to allow the procedure to be carried out.
At an earlier hearing fiscal depute Sally Clark told the court a significant amount of white dust was created as two joiners cut the first of the doors using a hand-held powered saw on 3 April, 2007.
But only halfway through cutting one of the employees put on a mask.
The fiscal said: "When they finished cutting the hole in the first door, they were concerned about the level of white dust and opened large roller doors to allow the dust to blow out into the car park.
"During this time there were around 10 employees present in the workshop, at least three of whom were very close to the work."
A health and safety officer was called in and the workshop was closed.
Tests were carried out on the white powder, which was found to be asbestos, and the workshop had to be decontaminated.
The court also heard the asbestos register at the school did not show a plan with the location of the doors containing the substance.
A Health and Safety investigation revealed the council's asbestos procedures said that preparations for any building work must include an assessment of anything which might expose workers to asbestos.
But the inquiry found it was custom and practice for employees and contractors not to check the Asbestos Register on site instead they waited until anything suspicious was noticed after starting work.
City of Edinburgh Council admitted four charges of breaching asbestos regulations which included failing to make a risk assessment prior to carrying out work, failing to prepare a written plan, breaching a duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic premises and failing to take measures to prevent employees being exposed to the substance.
Defence agent Mark Mohammed said as soon as the incident occurred steps were taken to investigate what went wrong and to make sure it didn't happen again.
He added that the council had been served with an improvement notice and had complied with its terms.
Back in February of this year the authority was fined £17,600 also at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after workers were exposed to asbestos while demolishing a wall at the same school.
The council hired Dalkeith Demolition Ltd (DDL) to remove the asbestos but its staff were not trained and the company joined with the council in admitting a series of failures under the Health and Safety at Work Act and Control of Asbestos Regulations.
DDL was also fined £11,333.
Sheriff Isabella McColl today said: "The degree of risk regarding asbestos must be regarded as very grave indeed.
"It is well known to be carcinogenic and a risk for those in the building trade."
The sheriff said she had reduced the fine from £20,000 to take into account the authority's early guilty plea but said the fine would have been much higher for a non-public body.
HSE inspector Mike Orr said the case should serve as a warning to other property owners.
He said: "The risks from asbestos are well known and it is imperative that precautions to manage those risks are put in place.
"City of Edinburgh Council should have been well aware of its responsibilities. Its failings are clear.
"As this case demonstrates, those most likely to be at risk from asbestos are tradesmen. Every week, 20 tradesmen die from asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma – an incurable cancer."
