Contract to refurbish turbines in South African power station
One of the English offices of a leading global engineering company is managing a contract to refurbish turbines in a South African power station. They called IOM, owing to previous work we have carried out for them in the UK. Their workforce based on site was stood down and unable to work owing to asbestos issues caused by other work being carried out on site. The Company required the IOM asbestos team to go to site as soon as possible to carry out air monitoring and provide advice.
The IOM team was on site in South Africa within five days of the initial contact, with all necessary equipment and ready to start work. They carried out air monitoring over the course of four days and presented their findings on site as well as the results of further analysis carried out after returning to the UK. While on site the IOM team was able to advise the client on the risks to their employees’ health as well as comparing the results in the British and German standards – as the Company's contract with their client was to the German standards.
The fast response was important to the client, as while their employees were stood down they were potentially losing a significant amount of time and money. It was also important to them that the IOM team was able to provide advice in the format of British and German results. This enabled them to determine if they were working in accordance with the British regulations and also deal with the contractual side of things with their client. The IOM final report is being used to do this.
Since returning to the UK the IOM team has also been asked to review various asbestos reports from previous sampling carried out for the client.