A key figure in construction’s Industry Safety Steering Group (ISSG) has urged the sector to stay vigilant on product safety.
The call came after Kingspan’s K15 Kooltherm insulation board was subject to a prohibition notice from the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OSSG) earlier this year.
Kingspan was forced to remove K15 from sale after concerns that a batch of the product manufactured between August and October 2021 did not meet the claimed fire safety standard.
The product is now back on sale and Kingspan said it was confident there “is and was no product safety issue” since the batches concerned achieved Class C classification in large-scale ISO 9705 tests. It said: “We have introduced measures to ensure the issues will not be repeated.”
Referring to the new national regulator for construction products established in 2021, Paul Nash, a member of the ISSG and past president of the CIOB, said: “The question remained, how would the regulator act when called upon and how would industry respond? That question has now been answered and it sends a clear message to other product manufacturers that the safety of those who use their products must come before profit.”
