America - On 4th March, a petition with over 25,000 signatures was delivered to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calling on them to require a more precise method of testing for asbestos in talc. The petition was created by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) along with the National Women’s Health Network, the American Association for Justice and Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity.
The petition comes after tests revealed products sold by popular retailers ‘Claire’s’ and ‘Justice’ contained traces of the deadly substance. On top of this, tests governed by......
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A group of MPs are calling for the government to take action to protect construction workers from the preventable illness silicosis, a chronic lung disease contracted by the inhalation of silica dust. Typically the condition develops after prolonged exposure, but some are affected sooner.
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Respiratory Health have said that more should be done to take on the problem of silica dust before it becomes the “next asbestos”. In their new report ‘Silica – the next asbestos?’, they make a number of recommendations to improve this......
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Here’s a round of February’s big talking points from the world of Asbestos.
Elizabeth Tower Rebuild Costs Rise
It was revealed that the cost of repairing the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, rose by £18.6 million. The cause of the dramatic cost increase has been blamed on damage from a World War Two bomb being more extensive than initially thought, along with the discovery of asbestos at the site.
The cost of conservation work on the nearly 180 year old structure, which is due for completion at the end of 2021, is......
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While most of the buildings in the UK containing asbestos were built prior to its complete ban in new constructions 1999, that doesn’t mean that it still can’t be found in new buildings.
There are still many instances where the deadly material has been transported onto the premises of newer builds with inhabitants completely unaware. This is due to a loophole in the regulations that meant materials in use prior to the ban were exempt from the new legislation.
As such, pre-existing material stock that contained the toxic substance were allowed to......
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As you may have seen on the news recently, Australia has been hit by a spate of wildfires due to record temperatures in recent months. In conjunction with the devastating impact on the country’s wildlife and the effects of its smoke on air quality, it’s perhaps understandable that the threat of from asbestos has been neglected.
Along with many other countries through the 20th Century, Australia used asbestos for much of its construction following the First and Second World Wars. The use of asbestos in cement, known as ‘Fibro’, roofing and......
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Barry Patchett, owner of BNS Demolition, was given a suspended sentence from Lincoln Magistrates court last week for failure to appropriately manage the removal of asbestos during demolition works on a former pig shed on Caenby Corner, Lincolnshire.
Mr Patchett, sentenced for failing to reduce the spread of and exposure to asbestos, didn’t remove the asbestos containing materials (ACMs) from the site before beginning his work. This then meant that the ACMs were subsequently broken up into significant quantities over the demolition site which then exponentially increased the risk of spreading......
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Despite being in a new year and a new decade there are still many news stories about asbestos breaking, here’s a round of January’s big talking points in the world of Asbestos.
Glasgow Charity Has Funding Cut
In January it was discovered that Glasgow-based charity, ‘Action on Asbestos’, had its funding stopped by the Glasgow city council. The charity was set up to help people who had been exposed to asbestos in the workplace.
Running for over 30 years, for the last 10 years they have had access to funding from the......
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A mother who, after the birth of her fifth child, started eating her favourite Johnson baby powder claims she can “scoff” an entire bottle in a day. Lisa Anderson began eating the powder 15 years ago due to an “overwhelming” desire to eat it, claiming it “just hit the spot”. Since the start of her addiction Ms Anderson estimates to have spent £8,000 on the bathroom staple.
Believing to suffer from the eating disorder PICA, an eating disorder characterised by a compulsion to eat inedible objects like stones, dust, paint etc,......
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In the second part of our review of last year we will take a look back at all the big asbestos news stories from the rest of the world. You can find part one here.
Resuming our review in summer 2019, in June the makeup set of former star of “Dance moms” and YouTube personality JoJo Siwa was pulled from “Claire’s” stores across America after an investigation from the Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA). Siwa responded in a YouTube video titled “My Makeup”, in which she blamed......
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As we all begin a new year we are going to take a look back at the biggest stories and talking points in the world of asbestos from the last 12 months.
In January, we saw the continued problem of asbestos in UK schools. The BBC reported that almost a quarter of schools had not told the government the extent of their asbestos problems or even how they were going to manage the deadly substance in their buildings. This led to calls from the Public Accounts Committee to have those that......
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