Be safe, not sorry

Employers of building maintenance and repair workers are required to carry out a risk assessment before undertaking any work which exposes, or is liable to expose, employees to asbestos. They must take the appropriate steps required by the Asbestos Regulations to prevent or reduce these risks.

In many cases, however, the employers and their workers have little or no information about the premises where they are going to undertake work, and are therefore not aware if asbestos containing materials are present. Consequently, it is difficult for them to consider the risks, or if precautions may be needed. A duty to manage the risk from asbestos in non-domestic premises was therefore added to the Control of Asbestos at work Regulations in 2002 to address this. These requirements have since been brought forward unchanged in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 as Regulation 4.

Responsibilities
Those who own, occupy, manage or have responsibilities for premises that may contain asbestos, will either have a legal duty to manage the risk from asbestos material, or a legal duty to cooperate with whoever manages that risk.

They will be required to manage the risk from asbestos by:
• finding out if there is asbestos in the premises, its extent and what condition it is in
• presuming the materials contain asbestos, unless you have strong evidence that they do not
• making and keeping up to date a record of the location and condition of the asbestos asbestos containing materials containing materials (ACMs) or presumed ACMs in their premises
• assessing the risk from the material
• preparing a plan that sets out in detail how they are going to manage the risk from this material
• taking the steps needed to put their plan into action
• reviewing and monitoring their plan and the arrangements made to put it in place
• providing information on the location and condition of the material to anyone who is liable to work or disturb it.

Licenced contractor
At some point somebody has got to work with asbestos containing materials, but who is allowed to do this? In the United Kingdom work on asbestos has by law to be carried out by a contractor who holds a licence under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, although there are exceptions. Normally, non-licensed work includes work on asbestos-containing textured coatings, asbestos cement and certain work of short duration on asbestos insulating board.

The duties imposed by regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 supplement the provisions of some of the duties imposed by other sets of regulations, in particular the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, which require the client to provide designers and contractors who may be bidding for the work or who they intend to engage, with the projects specific health and safety information needed to identify hazards and risks associated with the design and construction work.

Legal duties
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 place legal duties on employers and employees with regards to asbestos in the workplace, Regulation 10 states: “Every employer shall ensure that adequate information, instruction and training is given to those of his employees who are or are liable to be exposed to asbestos or who supervise such employees...”

Therefore those who employ construction workers to carry out demolition or refurbishment work have a legal duty to ensure that they have adequate information, instruction and training regarding asbestos, as those tradesmen are always liable to be exposed to asbestos as a result of the type of work they carry out.

In fact the Approved Code of Practice, which accompanies the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, states: “Asbestos awareness training is required to be given to employees whose work could forseeably expose them to asbestos. In particular it should be given to all demolition workers and those workers in the refurbishment, maintenance and allied trades where it is foreseeable that their work will disturb the fabric of the building because asbestos containing materials (ACMs) may become exposed during their work. Exemption from this requirement would apply only where the employer can demonstrate that work will only be carried out on buildings free of ACMs. This information should be available in the client’s asbestos management plan.”

Awareness training
Asbestos awareness training is a legal requirement for most employees and supervisors working in the construction industry. In addition to initial training, the Approved Code of Practice which accompanies the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 also states that refresher training should be given at least every year. Therefore, there is an ongoing annual legal requirement for refresher training to be carried out for the identified employees.

The Asbestos Removal Contractors Association (ARCA) is the leading supplier of asbestos awareness training aimed at building and maintenance workers. ARCA trainers have considerable experience within the asbestos removal industry and understand the issues that are faced every day. The range of courses which ARCA have available is comprehensive. Each has been designed to ensure that your staffs acquire a real depth of knowledge and capability.

For more information:
Tel: 01283 531126
Web: www.arca.org.uk