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Asbestos Surveys - Asbestos Management
The 2006 Control of Asbestos Regulations and how they affect you
"But my mate said it wasn't asbestos?"
(Asbestos was used in over 3000+ building materials)
The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations / The Asbestos Licensing Regulations and the Asbestos Prohibition Regulations have been reformed into:
The Control Of Asbestos Regulations 2006
View the full text here
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20062739.htm
In Plain English
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 will affect you if you are responsible for a place of work or non-domestic premises, this includes, but is not limited to, building managers, landlords, business owners, maintenance managers, building control officers, business directors, duty holders of premises, senior management, commercial property owners and tenants, industrial property owners and tenants. Basically any building or premises that's not a domestic house will have a person (duty holder) who is responsible for the safety of the building, occupants and visitors in terms of general safety and specifically in this case, asbestos exposure.
Large Organisations
Sometimes the 'duty holder' is a clearly defined position within an organisation other times its just another part of someone's job description. With the revised regulations they have introduced an 'implicit duty' for these people to know where the asbestos is in the buildings they are responsible for and to manage the risks, ('Duty to Manage') from these materials in the form of an asbestos management plan.
Small Businesses
The small business owner will probably only need a decent asbestos survey, complete with recommendations to comply with the majority of the requirements in the regulations. The duty holder is usually the owner or manager and he is not really expected to be trained to any significant level, just enough to comply with the regulations in terms of preventing the release and spread of asbestos fibres. The basically means, find out where it is, keep it in good (sealed) condition, don't let anyone disturb it, and keep an eye on it.
Asbestos Regulations Summarised :
"In addition to your existing legal duty to prevent, whenever possible, the exposure of employees and others in your premises to asbestos, a new 'duty to manage' asbestos will be added to the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2006.
This will require you to manage the risk from asbestos by:
- Finding out if there is asbestos in the premises, its amount and what condition it is in etc etc.
- Presuming materials contain asbestos, unless you have strong evidence that they do not.
- Making and keeping up to date records of the location and condition of ACMs in your premises.
- Assessing the risk from the material, (this should be included in the survey).
- Preparing a plan that sets out in detail how you are going to manage the risk from this material.
- Taking the steps needed to put your plan into action, (follow the recommendations in the survey).
- Reviewing and monitoring your plan and arrangements made to put it in place.
- Providing information on the location and condition of ACMs to anyone likely to work on or disturb it."
Source: Managing Asbestos in Premises, published by Health & Safety Executive Sept 2001. Click the link to see the rest of the HSE page.
Have a look at the HSE prosecutions for asbestos related breaches
Asbestos Legal Risks
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006
Here are the three implicit duties* for asbestos management as required in the revised regulations.
1. *Duty to FIND: Get an asbestos survey, ideally carried out by experienced persons.
The survey report will let you know where the asbestos materials are located , the amount, what condition it's in, who is at risk, level of risk from the material and much more.
2. *Duty to MANAGE: Make sure the materials are sealed, made safe and kept safe (many are already safe by their nature).
The survey report will make recommendations for the treatment, sealing and/or protection of the materials so that they can be left in place and managed.
3. *Duty to INFORM: Keep an eye on them and prevent them being disturbed by limiting access and informing tradesmen staff etc where they are located, assisted by the survey report.
The survey report will allow duty holders to carry out inspections based on the results, the report will also act as a reference for tradesmen/staff etc carrying out work in the building to prevent them accidentally disturbing asbestos materials by assessing the risk prior to starting the work.
It's all about preventing accidental exposure, by taking the above steps
An asbestos survey from Kent Surveys will help you comply with all three of the above requirements
A good asbestos survey will help you to comply with these requirements without affecting your business in any significant way