ASBESTOS & HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
COMPETENCY IS KEY
Stuart Goodman from Lucion, looks at the responsibilities associated with reducing the risks of asbestos.
Even though asbestos has been banned in building materials since late 1999, there are still many environments where the material has been left in situ and managed.
The decision to ‘manage’ is not necessarily a bad one as asbestos in good condition can be safe as long as its presence is known about. However, for those responsible for maintaining buildings and estates, where asbestos is found, the question is how it can be dealt with safely?
The versatility, strength, heat and chemical resistance of asbestos led to it becoming known as the wonder mineral of the 1950’s and 60’s, with widespread use in building materials and products.
Although it has been illegal to use asbestos in the construction or refurbishment of any building since late 1999, crocidolite (blue), amosite (brown) and chrysotile (white) asbestos were used extensively in building materials of all types in the past.
As a result, asbestos has commonly been used to improve the performance of sprayed coatings, laggings and insulation board, as well as used in ceiling tiles and wall panels, to decorative textured coatings and vinyl floor tiles.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES To address this situation, the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2012 (CAWR) seeks to minimise the risk of harmful effects of exposure to asbestos. Regulation 4 of the CAWR (2012) includes an explicit duty for
24
those in control of premises to identify and manage any asbestos present.
Under the regulations anyone who has an obligation in relation to the maintenance or repair of non-domestic premises - usually the occupier or owner – has a duty to manage the risk of asbestos and prevent further unknowing exposure to asbestos by building and maintenance workers.
Within an organisation this is the specific responsibility of the duty holder - a nominated person responsible for a non-domestic building or building portfolio and who has a specific role to fulfil in order to either identify and manage the asbestos or remove it and make it safe.
In all cases it is to be assumed that asbestos is present within a building unless proved otherwise. The duty holder therefore has to establish its non-existence, rather than simply assume it is not in the premises. If any presence is identified, the risk from any asbestos containing materials (ACMs) must be quantified and a written plan developed on how any risk will be managed.
A QUESTION OF COMPETENCY Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 sets out the criteria that the duty holder needs to fulfil their role. Essentially this requires that they should have all the relevant information, instruction and training required to enable them to meet their responsibilities.
A duty manager therefore needs to be competent to take on the
responsibilities they are tasked with. If/when something does go wrong, the first questions asked are invariably about the capability and experience of the people responsible.
In short, a competent person is someone that has the relevant information, instruction and training specific to their role.
At the basic level, it may be that those responsible for a building aren’t sure if there is any asbestos present, whether a formal survey is needed and if it is, what happens in a survey or what type of survey is required?
Anyone in such a role – and also those working in a building – should therefore have some basic knowledge of asbestos. They should be aware of what asbestos is and what materials it could have been used in. They should also know the potential health effects of ACMs, be aware of the precautions to be taken, and how to keep people safe in the event of an unexpected release of fibre.
To achieve this, gaining the relevant knowledge and training are fundamental requirements to keep people safe.
These include basic asbestos awareness courses for anyone that may come into contact with ACMs in their day to day working activities, to more formal industry qualifications such as P405 and P407 courses designed to enable duty holders successfully manage buildings.
www.lucion.co.uk/training www.tomorrowshs.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64