Documents demolition 10 results

"This is a joint report by Greenpeace and FIDH, that aims to shed light on the extremely poor working and environmental conditions that are still prevailing at shipbreaking yards all over the world. We illustrate this by using the specific examples of the two biggest shipbreaking countries: India and Bangladesh.
Shipbreaking involves environmental justice as well as human rights issues. This is why, for the first time, Greenpeace and FIDH decided to bring together their expertise in these respective fields and publish this joint report.
Shipbreaking yards provide the last resting place for End of Life Ships. At these yards, ships are scrapped, primarily for their steel content. Ship scrapping, often referred to as 'shipbreaking', provides employment to thousands of workers in Asia and allows the recycling of many materials used in the ship's construction. However, it is a dirty and dangerous business. Almost all of the vessels condemned for breaking contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, oil sludge, paints containing lead, other heavy metals like cadmium and arsenic, poisonous biocides as well as PCBs and even radioactive substances.
People who lose their lives due to shipbreaking activities are hardly ever mentioned and when they are reported, it is mostly as ‘numbers' and ‘statistics', whether it is in governmental or intergovernmental fora or in the media. Greenpeace and FIDH delegations went to the working and living places of these workers in India and Bangladesh. We wanted to learn more about the real stories behind these statistics. The present report is the fruit of both desk and field research. From the beginning it became immediately clear that there are serious discrepancies between these ‘numbers' and the witness stories. ...
(Extract from the publishers' presentation)

"Les opérations de réhabilitation et de démolition sont des opérations à très hauts risques, compte tenu de la présence potentielle d'amiante dans de nombreux matériaux et produits, et nécessitent de ce fait une recherche exhaustive des matériaux et produits amiantifères concernés par les travaux avant le démarrage de l'opération. Dans le département de la Manche, l'inspection du travail mène depuis 2005 une campagne ciblée de contrôle de la fiabilité des rapports de repérages amiante. Les résultats sont particulièrement inquiétants puisque l'absence, l'inadaptation ou la mauvaise qualité des repérages ont été mises en évidence dans 70 à 80 % des cas. Ils confirment que le repérage amiante constitue actuellement le maillon le plus faible de la chaîne de traitement de l'amiante en place. Dans cette première partie sont présentés les différents repérages amiante et leur adaptation aux opérations de réhabilitation et de démolition. L'article revient ensuite sur l'étude statistique menée en 2005 et 2006 dans le département de La Manche, laquelle est illustrée d'exemples concrets. Un deuxième article à venir traitera plus spécifiquement des obligations des différents acteurs des opérations de réhabilitation et de démolition et de l'étude des causes de l'insuffisance de certains repérages."

"The objective of this code is to provide practical guidance on a legal, administrative, technical and educational framework for safety and health in construction with a view to: preventing accidents and diseases and harmful effects on the health of workers arising from employment in construction; ensuring appropriate design and implementation of construction projects; providing means of analysing from the point of view of safety, health and working conditions, construction processes, activities, technologies and operations, and of taking appropriate measures of planning, control and enforcement."

"Le présent recueil se propose de fournir des conseils pratiques sur les aspects juridiques, administratifs, techniques et éducationnels de la sécurité et de la santé dans la construction dans le but de: prévenir les accidents et les atteintes à la santé liés aux travaux de construction; faire en sorte que les projets de construction soient l'objet d'études et d'une exécution appropriées; permettre d'analyser les techniques et les travaux sous l'angle de la sécurité, de la santé et des conditions de travail et de prendre les mesures qui conviennent en matière de planification, de contrôle et d'application des dispositions législatives."

"Demolition workers are exposed to various hazardous substances including respirable crystalline silica (RCS). This can cause chronic lung diseases like silicosis, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research was commissioned to identify appropriate, achievable RCS control standards for demolition activity and to assess exposures with them applied. It involved both site visits and a literature search.
Nine site visits were undertaken to four different companies who were pro-actively focussed on managing RCS. Forty-one RCS exposure measurements were made for the demolition work seen. Results were compared against the Workplace Exposure Limit (WEL) for RCS of 0.1 mg/m3 as an 8-hr Time Weighted Average. The majority (75.6%) were less than 25% of this WEL. Only one exposure measurement exceeded it.
The literature search found little published data on RCS exposures in demolition. Exposures measured in this research are at the low end of the spectrum when compared to what exists. This could be expected given participant's pro-active focus on managing RCS and means they cannot be viewed as representative of the GB demolition sector overall.
Conclusions on effective exposure controls for the tasks seen during the site visits are summarised in this research. They inform HSE's position on adequate controls under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) for demolition activities."