The health impact of demolition dust

 Drawing on a recent case study, she explains how ENVIRON prepared a comprehensive site dust management plan (DMP) to minimise fungal spore release during the demolition of a building located adjacent to residential accommodation for child leukaemia patients and their parents. She also considers some of the lessons learned, in terms of actions that ‘worked well’ and those that could, with hindsight, have been undertaken ‘better’.

 Exposure to certain fungal spores, released when buildings are demolished, can be life-threatening. Among the most sensitive people are patients with bone marrow and organ transplants. For NHS estates managers, the threat typically occurs during the redevelopment of an operational hospital, where demolition and refurbishment is taking place adjacent to operational units. In 1999 three people died in Newcastle General Hospital during demolition on the site, with the deaths attributed to invasive aspergillosis, although postmortems to confirm this were not carried out. Another three were treated for Aspergillus, infections, but recovered. A number of other hospitals around the world have experienced similar outbreaks of aspergillosis, and, as a result, some NHS Trusts have developed policies and risk management procedures for managing the risks within their estate. Mitigation measures tend to focus on sealing internal units and deep cleaning to remove the spores. However, as the threat is not always from within their estate, hospital estates managers need to be aware of plans to redevelop around their sites, and assess the risk of their patients becoming infected with Aspergillus.

Good awareness the key