Sussexsafety.net is a new organisation set up to help you comply with all your health & safety requirements and have easy access to competent health and safety advice.
Asbestos
Health & Safety Consultancy, Information & Management
Asbestos is the greatest single cause of work related deaths in the UK, with past exposure causing around 5,000 deaths each year. It is estimated that 1.8 million trades people are still at risk.
How do dutyholders comply?
There are three essential steps:
1. Find out whether the premises contains asbestos and if so, where it is, and what condition it is in. If in doubt, materials must be presumed to contain asbestos
2. Assess the risk
3. Make a plan to manage that risk and act on it
What does the duty to manage asbestos involve?
Where can asbestos be found in buildings ?
Take reasonable steps to find out if there are materials containing asbestos in non-domestic premises, and if so, its amount, where it is and what condition it is
Presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not
Make, and keep up-to-date, a record of the location and condition of the asbestos containing materials - or materials which are presumed to contain asbestos
Assess the risk of anyone being exposed to fibres from the materials identified
Prepare a plan that sets out in detail how the risks from these materials will be managed
Take the necessary steps to put the plan into action
Periodically review and monitor the plan and the arrangements to act on it so that the plan remains relevant and up-to-date
Provide information on the location and condition of the materials to anyone who is liable to work on or disturb them
There is also a requirement on anyone to co-operate as far as is necessary to allow the dutyholder to comply with the above requirements
What about training?
Training is mandatory for anyone liable to be exposed to asbestos fibres at work.
This includes maintenance workers, caretakers and others who may come into contact with or disturb asbestos (e.g. cable installers), as well as those involved in asbestos removal work.
Most work with asbestos should be carried out by a licensed contractor.
If you:
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Are responsible for premises built before 2000
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Suspect you have asbestos containing materials and
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Are concerned about your duty to manage asbestos
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Contact Sussexsafety.net to assist you with your Asbestos Management Planning
Sussexsafety.net
There are four main diseases associated with inhalation of asbestos fibres: asbestosis, mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer and diffuse pleural thickening.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 and Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) relating to asbestos management came into force on 6 April 2012.
If you're responsible for maintenance of non-domestic premises, you have a 'duty to manage' the asbestos in them, to protect anyone using or working in the premises from the risks to health that exposure to asbestos causes.
Asbestos could be present in any building that was built or refurbished before the year 2000.
Importing, supplying and the use of all forms of asbestos is illegal and so is the use of second-hand asbestos products like asbestos cement sheets and asbestos boards and tiles.
Asbestos containing materials in buildings has been subject to progressively more stringent controls leading to an effective ban on its use in 1999 however there are still many thousands of premises where Asbestos Containing Materials are present.
Click the image below to check out where Asbesos Containing Materials (ACMs) may be present in a domesic residence.