WALTHAMSTOW: Asbestos found in council building (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAMSTOW: Asbestos found in council building

1:01pm Monday 23rd June 2008 in

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DEADLY asbestos has been found in a council building - prompting a watchdog to order it to be closed until it is made safe.

The building, in Lockwood Way, Walthamstow, houses a team of council workers and is also used to store files containing information about people using council services.

The facility was recently refurbished and Waltham Forest joint unions health and safety convenor Su Manning has since become concerned about dust in the building.

An investigation by a council team has now revealed both white and the more dangerous brown asbestos (amosite) in the building.

Mrs Manning said: "The building has a corrugated roof and I know that many roofs contain white asbestos.

"But there is also amosite, I don't know how that has got there but it is worrying because people need access to those files."

Because of the find, the council was obliged to report the matter to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

The HSE has now issued a prohibition notice meaning the building has to be closed until the results of further tests.

Asbestos was widely used as a building material and insulator in the 1950s but it was only in the mid-1970s that its dangers were fully appreciated.

White asbestos (chrysolite) is less harmful, but brown (amosite) and blue (crocidolite) asbestos are potentially deadly.

The fibres in asbestos can cause inflammation of the lung, and can cause incurable cancers including mesothelioma, the symptoms of which can take decades to develop.

Mrs Manning fears there could be more HSE orders or prosecutions against the authority and claimed the council's corporate helath and safety team, which advises council managers, will be axed as part of an efficiency review.

The team has already had its resources cut.

She said: "People have left and not been replaced, the team used to have three advisors, a technician, an administrator and a manager but it now has just three people.

"And now we are getting HSE orders.

"We have extremely good health and safety methods and I am concerned the council departments will not be able to get expert advice and help.

"Once the team has gone people will realise what has been lost."

The Guardian contacted the council for a comment and is awating a response.