Blog

Asbestos Guidance from HSE

18 June 2018

We had a recent enquiry regarding Asbestos and thought it may be useful to others to remind you of the things you need to be aware of when working with Asbestos.

We had a recent enquiry regarding Asbestos Management and thought it may be useful to others to remind you of the things you need to be aware of when working with Asbestos.

As we know, in Great Britain, we have a lot of older buildings that in the past were built using asbestos containing materials (ACM's). Some of these ACM's are perfectly safe as long as you do not disturb them. What do we mean by 'disturb'? When you do refurbishment work in a building or perhaps you wish to demolish it. In both cases it is always good practice to have a survey carried out beforehand.

There are times when an ACM gets weathered, or over time starts to become 'friable' and begins to break apart. In this case it must be removed or encapsulated. What we mean by this is that the ACM starts to break up and, if disturbed, will push asbestos fibres into the air - this is highly dangerous. In this case you will most certainly have to employ a professional asbestos remover to safely remove and dispose of the ACM items.

The HSE has guidance available which gives essential information to anyone who needs to work with asbestos or anyone who may well need to employ contractors etc. to maintain their building portfolios.