Apex Scotland’s industrial cleaning and waste removal social enterprise All Cleaned Up was able to use its hazardous waste removal expertise to deal with the safe disposal of some sodium cyanide canisters following an incident on the Isle of Lewis.
Two workers on a private hunting estate near Timsgarry had been treated for suspected chemical poisoning after a canister of the toxic substance, which had been used for pest control, was inadvertently split open in their fish packing room. The estate workers and the ambulance crew that responded to the incident underwent a roadside decontamination and, following an assessment at the Western Isles Hospital, were all discharged. The company had then contacted All Cleaned up Scotland to see if they could assist with site decontamination
Because of the nature of the spillage along with the fact that the contaminated area was used for food preparation, special attention needed to be paid to ensuring the area affected was completely free of contamination. Brian Robertson-Fern, All Cleaned Up’s Operations Manager explains:
“The incident had been widely reported in the national news and so, when I got the phone call about taking on the job, I already knew what would be involved. We were able to secure the appropriate paperwork fairly quickly and were on the ferry to Lewis within a matter of days. The clean-up job went smoothly and, apart from a slight delay on the return ferry due to the weather conditions, we were able to dispose of the cyanide canisters safely once back on the mainland. These types of incidents need to be dealt with by specialists and we were glad to be able to assist in this case.”
Dickon Green, Uig Lodges site Manager said
“thank you very much (All Cleaned Up Scotland) for the invaluable assistance. We were very much impressed by the professional way that the works were completed and your speed of response.” After completion the site was inspected by local environmental health officers and is now back in full use.