Asbestos Awareness

Asbestos can be found in any industrial or residential building built or refurbished before the year 2000. It is in many of the common materials used in the building trade that you or your employees may come across during the course of your work. Despite now being banned, it’s historical use means it still accounts for around 5000 deaths every year.

Park City’s Asbestos Awareness Training Course provides all you need to know when it comes to dealing with Asbestos – from legal requirements and duty to manage to practical guidance on identifying and dealing with the risks.

Where might you find asbestos?

Asbestos can be found in many of the common materials that were used in the building trade prior to 2000. These include:

Loose asbestos in ceiling or floor cavity
Lagging
Sprayed coatings on ceilings, walls and beams/columns
Asbestos insulating board
Floortiles, textiles and composites
Textured coatings
Asbestos cement products
Roofing felt
Rope seals and gaskets

Some of these materials should only be worked on by a licensed contractor.

Who is at risk?

Any worker who is involved in refurbishment, maintenance and other similar trades is potential at risk of exposure to asbestos. A few examples include:

Heating & ventilation and telecoms engineers
Demolition workers
Plumbers, carpenters and joiners
Roofing contractors and construction workers
Plasterers, painters and decorators
Installers of fire and burglar alarms systems and computer and data networks.
Cable layers and electricians
General maintenance staff
Architects, building surveyors, and other such professionals

What are the health risks from asbestos?

Asbestos is responsible for over 5000 deaths every year. Younger people, if routinely exposed to asbestos fibres over time, are at greater risk of developing asbestos-related disease than older workers. This is due to the time it takes for the body to develop symptoms after exposure to asbestos (latency). Exposure to asbestos can cause four main diseases:

Mesothelioma - a cancer of the lining of the lungs; it is always fatal and is almost exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos
Asbestos - related lung cancer - which is almost always fatal
Asbestosis - a scarring of the lungs which is not always fatal but can be a very debilitating disease, greatly affecting quality of life
Diffuse pleural thickening - a thickening of the membrane surrounding the lungs which can restrict lung expansion leading to breathlessness

It can take anywhere between 15-60 years for any symptoms to develop after exposure, so these diseases will not affect you immediately but may do later in life. You need to start protecting yourself against any exposure to asbestos now because the effect is cumulative.

Managing and working with asbestos

The duty to manage asbestos is a legal requirement under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (Regulation 4). It applies to the owners and occupiers of commercial premises (such as shops, offices, industrial units etc) who have responsibility for maintenance and repair activities. In addition to these responsibilities, they also have a duty to assess the presence and condition of any asbestos-containing materials. If asbestos is present, or is presumed to be present, then it must be managed appropriately.

It is important that you:

Identify whether asbestos is present and determine its type and condition
Carry out a risk assessment
Decide if the work needs to be carried out by a licensed contractor
Ensure those carrying out the work are suitably trained