How can the Manual help me: Asbestos

Any job, any day of the week, can potentially release lethal asbestos fibres. It’s not like dust –  you can’t see, smell, or feel the fibres in the air or on your clothes.

Asbestos can be found in any building built or refurbished before the year 2000. Houses built in the fifties, sixties and seventies are very likely to include asbestos. It could be in the house or building you are working on right now.

5000 people a year die from past exposure to asbestos, the HSE aim to help tradespeople avoid exposure and the risks that involves through it’s campaign Asbestos and You . The HSE are also providing lots of useful guides and templates on it’s website.

The CIP H&S Manual includes a comprehensive guide to Asbestos in its Construction H&S Manual.

Due to the nature of work such as demolition, refurbishment and maintenance there is the potential for accidental exposure to asbestos to occur. While all the normal precautions must be taken to prevent exposure to asbestos, plans need to be in place to deal with an accidental exposure to asbestos if it happens despite these precautions.

There are a number of ways in which accidental exposure to asbestos fibres could occur:

• the discovery of material which could contain asbestos that had not previously been identified;
• accidental damage to known asbestos containing material;
• finding known asbestos containing material that has previously been damaged.

In order to protect employees and other persons in the vicinity, from an accidental release of asbestos fibres, the relevant duty holder(s) must produce an emergency procedure as part of:

• the Asbestos Management Plan for premises; or
• as part of the method statement for asbestos stripping removal or other operations affecting asbestos containing materials (asbestos works); or
• as part of the emergency arrangements within the Construction Phase Plan, or other management arrangements for construction work, when potentially inadvertently working on or damaging asbestos containing materials during the work.

Emergency Plans to cover an accidental release of asbestos fibre should include the preparation of emergency kits which include appropriate disposable respirators and spare clothing for contaminated persons. Users should be trained to fit RPE and should be face fitted for these.

IMMEDIATE ACTION

Once it is suspected that there may have been an accidental release of asbestos fibres, and without waiting for confirmation of asbestos content where this is not already known, it is important that all reasonable steps are taken to prevent any possible further contamination and/or the inhalation of fibres, through the following actions:

• IMMEDIATELY STOP WORK AND EVACUATE THE CONTAMINATED AREA;
• establish an exclusion zone/s around all contaminated area/s, equipment and material/s and display warning signage which states “Danger, Asbestos Dust”;
• prohibit further access into the potentially contaminated area/s;
• ensure all ventilation systems within the contaminated area are switched off and isolated and all doors and windows at the extent of the contaminated area are closed and, wherever possible, sealed;
• notify the potential exposure to local line management/supervision;
• identify all individuals and any plant or equipment that may have been exposed to asbestos fibres;
• limit the movement of all individuals and any plant or equipment that may have been exposed to a restricted area until they have been decontaminated.

Regardless of whether or not the exposure has been confirmed, decontamination of individuals should be carried out without further risk of exposure:

• Having evacuated the potentially contaminated area, stay on site and call for assistance.
• issue appropriate (to EN149:2001 FFP3) disposable respirators (RPE) to those potentially contaminated and those giving assistance to prevent inhalation of fibres during the decontamination process.
• person/s assisting to wear appropriate PPE – preferably disposable overalls.
• wipe down contaminated clothing with damp rags.
• safely remove the item/s of clothing.
• immediately shower or wash thoroughly, leaving the washing facilities clean.
• put contaminated clothing, rags, PPE and RPE in a plastic bag
• dispose of plastic bag as hazardous waste.