Demolition firms to carry out risk assessments in wake of Corby birth defects case.
UK trade magazine Contract Journal reports that a judge ruled this week that reclamation works on the former British Steel complex in Corby between 1985 and 1999 led to 17 children being born with underdeveloped fingers and webbed feet.
A group of local mothers won their case against Corby Borough Council following a three month trial.
Read the full story here.
Demolition News and Building Health’s Nichola Elvy look discuss drug and alcohol abuse in demolition.
With an increasing number of major contractors, utility and transport infrastructure companies now insisting that subcontractors conduct compulsory health monitoring and screening as part of their pre-qualification systems, many demolition companies are now having to face up to drugs and alcohol abuse within their workforce for the first time.
In this exclusive podcast (which is scheduled to be the first of two parts), we look at this issue with Nichola Elvy whose company, Building Health, is at the forefront of drugs and alcohol testing in this industry sector.
Use the link below to listen to our latest daily audio broadcast.
Demolition News has created a fantasy football league for demolition professionals.
With the start of the English Premiership season just two weeks away, Demolition News has created a fantasy football league specifically for demolition professionals.
Competitors are given an imaginary £100 million to spend on Premiership players (and believe me, it doesn’t go far when you’ve spent £20+ million on Rooney and Gerrard) and can then pit their team against those of other demolition professionals in the newly-created Demolition League. You can then spend the next eight months pretending to be Sir Alex Ferguson, buying and selling players and changing systems.
The league will run for the entire season but we will be producing regular updates here at Demolition News and over on Twitter on www.twitter.com/demolitionnews. And although we haven’t yet agreed what the prize will be, there will be a prize for the winning team at the end of the 2009/2010 season.
To take part, all you have to do is register at http://fantasy.premierleague.com
Once you have logged in and entered your team, click on the ‘Leagues’ link you can find on the right of the page. Now enter the code 585464-136648 to join the private league.
Just one final note – When you do join, you will see that Demolition News has already registered a team (the appropriately named Mighty ‘ammers).
Good luck and enjoy the game.
Criminal charges against 13 over Chinese tower block collapse.
A mid-level Communist Party secretary in Shanghai has been suspended and 13 people face criminal charges a month after a building collapsed nearly intact, as we reported last week.
Cai Jianzhong, the party official in the Meilong area, where the apartment building toppled over on June 27, was suspended and is under investigation, Xie Liming, a senior Shanghai official, told reporters.
Six people are being held by police and seven are out on bail awaiting trial, said Xie, head of the Shanghai Work Safety Administration. He declined to clarify whether Cai was among them.
Six companies, including the construction company and property developer have been ordered to pay a total of 1.5 million yuan (220,000 dollars) in fines, he said.
Full details here.
Prosecution over operative fatality throws spotlight on site safety.
C&D Consultancy’s John Woodward has very kindly forwarded us details of a company from Omagh in Northern Ireland that has been fined £30000.00 for breaches of Health & Safety Regulations. The case was brought against PFG Plant Hire Ltd after Oliver Rutledge died when part of a wall that he was demolishing fell onto him. Another employee sustained minor injuries.
The accident happened at a construction site in County Tyrone in January 2008.
The HSE Northern Ireland (HSENI) said that the company had not completed a sufficient risk assessment and that they had not developed an adequate safe system of work for their employees.
“It is vital that all companies properly identify and address hazards within the workplace and implement systems to minimise and control risks” said Kevin Campbell of HSENI. “These systems need to be communicated to the workforce, implemented, maintained, and updated when necessary”.
“CDM 2007 was supposed to help to reduce fatalities,” John Woodward concludes. “But once again we have a death that could have been prevented by use of trained, competent labour and a full understanding of their CDM duties by a principal contractor.”
The National Federation of Demolition Contractors sets date/topic for next mini seminar.
The National Federation of Demolition Contractors and the National Demolition Training Group has announced details of its September 2009 Working Wednesday mini-seminar.
Open only (and FREE) to NFDC and NDTG members, the Working Wednesday is scheduled to take place at Resurgam House in Hemel Hempstead on 16 September and will cover two key topics.
14.30 to 16.00 – BRE workshop on the disposal of Ozone Depleting roof sheeting
16.00 to 17.00 – NFDC solution to the issue of utility service disconnections
To book your place, please contact training group manager Sophie Francis by email: Sophie@demolition-nfdc.com, or Tel: 01442 217144
Institute of Demolition Engineers confirms guest speakers for Autumn seminar.
The Institute of Demolition Engineers has released details of its guest speaker line-up for its forthcoming Autumn Seminar that is scheduled to take place on 25 September 2009 at One Great George Street in London’s Westminster.
Speakers include:
• Ruud Schreijer of Ruusch Super High Reach Machines is coming over from Holland to talk about the World’s biggest High Reach machine and how they see High Reach moving forward.
• Stuart Marchand of Wentworth House Partnership will be talking about demolition from a structural engineer’s viewpoint.
• Rainer Cremer is coming over from Germany to talk about chimney demolition by robotic machines.
• Dick Green is making a welcome return to talk about demolition by explosives in India.
• Peter Jones will offer an alternative viewpoint in the disposal of composite panels
In addition, IDE vice-president and the Institute’s events supremo John Woodward has this morning confirmed via Twitter that Arne Marx will be jetting in from Germany to look at the latest developments in attachments from his company, Genesis.
Further details of the event, together with online booking details, can be found by clicking here.
A new video from hydraulic hose specialists Pirtek highlights the benefits of the Datatag system.
UK demolition firm calls upon Government to allow ship breaking at former oil yard.
DSM Demolition has called upon energy minister Jim Mather to interject in an ongoing row over the future of the former Nigg oil yard at Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands.
The company, which is currently involved in the demolition of the world-famous BBC Pebble Mill Studios in the Midlands, has plans to turn the former oil yard into one of the UK’s largest ship and oil rig decommissioning and dismantling facilities. But its efforts are currently encumbered by a dispute between owners US oil and gas giant KBR and the Wakelyn Trust that has held up its sale.
According to DSM, the Nigg facility has one of the largest dry docks in Europe, 45,570 square metres of covered workshop and almost 30 hectares of yard space.
Click here for the full story.
