Asbestos All Around Us

It seems that, at long last, the dangers arising from asbestos in the world outside of demolition and construction is being more appreciated.

A recent story on the BBC website followed by coverage on BBC News sites, highlight the cases of two teachers who say they have become victims of mesothelioma, having worked in schools for many years. According to the NUT teaching union that commissioned the report that led to the story, 86% of schools in the UK had buildings that contained asbestos. This could be in ceiling tiles, wall boards, or many of the pieces of equipment used in science laboratories. It’s good then that the problem is being recognised, but what’s been done about it?

Well, in an interesting end to the piece on the BBC, they quote a professor from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who said "Because the levels of asbestos are [often] so low in schools, actually ripping it out could be more dangerous. It's a very nasty problem to get sorted. And for young people, the risk of dying of mesothelioma is more like 1 in 10,000, as there's a disconnect between those being diagnosed now and the exposure to the children of today."

He added that, were it possible, removing all asbestos from the environment would prevent "at most 25 deaths a year so trying to remove it from all schools could actually increase the number of deaths."

So the moral of the story is that we know asbestos is dangerous and in lots of places, but we are best leaving it there for someone else to clear up. And who do you suppose that will be!

Watch episode 1 of Demolition - The Wrecking Crew

The beauty of the BBC in 2015 is that if you miss an episode of a show, you can still watch it online using iPlayer for 30 days. That's the case for new series Demolition - The Wrecking Crew, which aired its first episode on May 17th. That means you've got until June 16th to watch it. We highly recommend it as it explores the "explosive world of demolition." It also includes a few very familiar faces.

Watch the episode online now.

IDE and the BBC are working together on a Demolition documentary

BBC Production North are setting about recording a documentary on the Demolition industry. And what better institute to help them do that than the IDE!

Following a successful meeting last week, the IDE and BBC are now scouting out projects that could be filmed either later this year or early next. It's not just big demolition projects they want, either. Smaller, very technically challenging jobs are also on their radar.

If you are interested in being a part of this exciting programme and would like an informal chat with the Producers please contact adam.hopkins@bbc.co.uk, rosie.knott@bbc.co.uk or dave.dunkerley@bbc.co.uk

Source: IDE

Red Road Flats feature on The One Show

We've covered the demolition of the Red Road flats in Glasgow a few times over the past year, and now the BBC's The One Show decided to pick up on the iconic flats.

Talking with Safedem's William Sinclair, he explains how complicated a job it actually is due to the steel structure of the building. We also learn how two types of explosives are used for such a structure.

The Red Roads flats coverage starts at the 20 minute mark with the video available to watch via the BBC iPlayer.

Brazil implosion by Fabio Bruno featured in BBC "Wonders" series

Last year C&D Consultancy were approached, via DemolitionNews, by the BBC for help in arranging the filming of a building implosion for the new Prof. Brian Cox series “Wonders”.

We offered them the chance to film one of the series of GHA, Glasgow implosions but they felt that Glasgow was not warm enough or exotic enough for this fantastic series so we managed to arrange with our friend Fabio Bruno for them to fly to Rio and film one of his implosions.

At the time the BBC invited me to go out to Rio for the filming but flight times, and plane changes twice in Madrid and Paris, meant that I couldn't be there to witness it. However the BBC have now released the following video that shows the footage used in the series and the excellent implosion achieved by Fabio.

Busy week in prospect for John Woodward

This week means a busy seven days for John as Monday sees him at Armac preparing methods for new contracts in Dudley and Glamorgan before he goes to Glasgow on Monday evening for the monthly GHA site meetings on Tuesday for the High Reach demolition contracts at Plean Street for TDS, and at Broomloan Court for Coleman & Co.

Wednesday sees him carrying out CCDO assessments for the NDTG in the Midlands before travelling to Erith on Thursday for the IDE Council of Management meeting.

Immediately following the Council meeting he then collects more air miles by flying to Rio, Brazil to assist the BBC in filming the implosion of Presidium Helio Gomes in Rio on Saturday at noon for the second series of “Wonders of the Solar System” presented by Brian Cox, before flying back overnight on Sunday to the UK.

Hopefully all travel plans will run smoothly and we will keep you informed via our twitter feed as to where he is at any time.