Rip off?

[jonjel]

I called to see a friend at lunchtime and the house opposite is clad in scaffolding and plastic sheets.

There are two chaps on the scaffold in decontamination suits and a decontam tent in the font garden.

What are they doing?

Removing the soffit boards. The house was built in the late 70's, and with millions like it has asbestos cement soffits. White asbestos, not blue. Something I know a little about.

I shudder to think what the old bloke living in the house has been charged for the job. No doubt a slick salesman has conned him into thinking that he and his neighbours are in peril from mesothelioma.

[StuartG]

You're right to look a bit one eyed at the situation. It may well be asbestos board but it could be cement board. Either way it's fair to assume the ole boy is being ripped off in some way. The blue stuff is the really wary one but either are to be treated with respect. Needless to say there's a lot of H&S hype attached to it. AAMI If the neighbour was able to to claim he did the work, he could dig an hole 'within the curtilage' of his property and bury it, not being for commercial reasons. If recovery of the substance is to be comtemplated then keeping as damp as possible is a good idea and also those temporary masks kept damp as well.

ps. bit ambigious above. Cement board is harmless, but they wouldn't have told him that, p'raps, mebee

[jonjel]

Stuart.

At my local dump there is a skip for asbestos and I took corrugated asbestos sheet from an old garage up there and dumped it, and it was a damned sight older than 40 years.

A relative died of mesothelioma and at the time I worked with a group in Cardiff who were specialists in this field - their original job was lung disease studies in people who had worked in the mines, but all the mines closed so they went on to asbestos related disease.

I may ask the chap how much he paid for what I think is a scam.

Incidentally you can still buy what looks like asbestos cement sheet to go under the edge of the tiles where a wall meets the roof.

[jonjel]

Pure coincidence, but this report landed on my desk this morning.

Bit too late for the poor buggers who have died - all of them within 5 years of diagnosis, many of whom faced a long a lonely battle with slick lawyers and insurance companies, almost all of whom denied responsibility.

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Date:
25 Jul 2012
Print friendly version


From today newly diagnosed victims of mesothelioma will receive help through a new support scheme.

The Minister for Welfare, Lord Freud, and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) have announced a new scheme that allows around 3,000 mesothelioma victims across the UK unable to claim compensation because they cannot trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer, to receive approximately £300m in payments in the first ten years.

Although the majority of people are able to claim compensation through the employers’ liability insurance held by their employer, more than 300 mesothelioma sufferers a year currently lose out on compensation because they are unable to trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer.

These payments will be in addition to the £200m the insurance industry already pays each year in compensating mesothelioma sufferers.

Lord Freud said:

“We have worked tirelessly together with the insurance industry to agree this package of measures on behalf of those who face this terrible disease.

“The new scheme will mean that, for the first time, sufferers of diffuse mesothelioma, who cannot trace either a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer, will have access to extra payments.”

The scheme will come into force subject to primary legislation and membership will be compulsory for all employers’ liability insurers. However, Ministers and the ABI have agreed anyone diagnosed with mesothelioma from today (25 July 2012) will be eligible to make a claim.

New measures to speed up the process of receiving compensation for all mesothelioma victims are also being introduced, including a levy on current employers’ liability insurers to fund the scheme at an estimated cost of £25-£35m a year and changes to speed up the process of getting support to all mesothelioma sufferers, such as changes to the Civil Procedure Rules to support the use of a mesothelioma pre-action protocol to ensure that evidence is disclosed early.

[StuartG]

Jj,

"Incidentally you can still buy what looks like asbestos cement sheet to go under the edge of the tiles where a wall meets the roof. "

Soffit
"The underside of an architectural structure such as an arch or overhanging eaves."

incidentally, a couple of weeks back I was sitting outside at my Mums care home, havin a fag, finished, got up, took two steps, crash! behind me. Looked round to see the cement soffit board had snapped across the back of the chair. I must have looked like something out of the old silent movies. The original and the subsequent replacement was cement board.

"Cement boards are mainly cement bonded particle boards and cement fibre. Cement bonded particle boards have treated wood flakes as reinforcement, whereas in cement fibre boards have cellulose fibre, which is a plant extract as reinforcement."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement_board#Composition

They do look a bit like the old stuff, asbestos and cement boards.

[jonjel]

Stuart.

I agree, yet I found in a trade catalogue (Screwfix I think) a dire warning that any house constructed before 2000 might have dangerous levels of asbestos in the soffits. That in my opinion, to use a scientific term is bollocks.

I suppose they thought 'well, maybe the 50's, but lets play safe and add 50 years.'