SCOTLAND'S largest health board has been fined £6000 for a failure to deal with potentially deadly asbestos at a children's hospital for two years.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde admitted breaching asbestos control regulations by having the poisonous fibres in a basement plant room of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard it led to a number of workers and contractors being exposed to the asbestos.

The court heard that a survey in February 2009 had identified the presence of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) in various locations within the plant room and noted they were in good condition and presented a low risk. The survey recommended the ACMs should be labelled and their condition monitored so any future deterioration could be managed.

In January 2011, a survey of the plant room was carried out prior to the installation of a new MRI scanner at the hospital.

This found some of the ACMs were in a poor condition and posed a high risk. It recommended removal and environmental cleaning of the area.

Air and swab samples for asbestos fibres came back positive, the plant room was then sealed off and the matter reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

An investigation by the HSE found the health board had taken no action since the 2009 survey to monitor the ACMs within the plant room. No labelling of the ACMs had taken place and nothing had been done over the following two years to maintain the materials in good condition.

The 2011 survey showed their condition had deteriorated, from good and low risk to poor and high risk, but it was not known precisely how or when the ACMs had been damaged.

The court also heard employees of the health board and outside contractors regularly had to access the plant room and could have potentially been exposed to the harmful asbestos fibres when carrying out maintenance work.

HSE Inspector Eve Macready said after the case: "The dangers posed by the presence of asbestos are clear. There is no known 'safe limit' and it is often many years after exposure before asbestos-related diseases appear – so it is important exposure to asbestos fibres is kept to an absolute minimum.

"Glasgow Health Board failed in its duty to properly manage the risks of asbestos in its premises and as a result a number of employees and external contractors have potentially been exposed to harmful fibres."

Peter Gray, QC, representing the health board, told the court the estates officer for the health board had "very significant attendance issues and personal issues".

He said it was clear the asbestos policy had not been implemented properly.

The QC said it was "equally clear" the failures had not been detected by management.

Mr Gray told the court a number of changes had been made, including a renewed policy. He added that perhaps the most significant change was the post of an asbestos manager has been advertised to oversee and implement the policy.

In September 2010, an inquest heard 58-year-old Dr Kieran Sweeney died after being exposed to asbestos breathed in from pipe lagging at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary and Southern General Hospital where he worked in the late 1970s.

The medical professor moved to England in 1979 and was diagnosed with the rare lung cancer mesothelioma in 2008.

In a letter to his lawyers a fortnight before his death on Christmas Eve 2009, the father-of-four said he had seen men working on asbestos pipework at the hospital.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "We accept that in this instance our robust asbestos procedures fell short of the standards we strive to maintain and the sheriff's decision to issue a fine."