How and When to Work with Asbestos

 

Asbestos Regulations states that employers and self-employed are required to prevent exposure to asbestos fibers when working with asbestos or doing work that may potentially disturb asbestos in any way. When it is not reasonably practicable, the Regulations state that they must make sure that exposure is kept as low as reasonably practicable by any other measures other than using respiratory protective equipment. Also, further spreading of asbestos fibers must be prevented at all costs.

If the Control of Asbestos and Regulations enforcers, the HSE, know that you are potentially working with asbestos or your employees are exposed or working with it, they will go and specify the work methods and controls that should be used to prevent exposure and spreading of asbestos fibers.

Here are some airborne exposure limit, also known as Control Limits, that the Asbestos Regulations have set:

1. 0.1 fibers per cm3 - for all types of asbestos for four hours of exposure

2. 0.6 fibers per cm3 - for short term exposures lasting for ten minutes

Exposure and working with asbestos should require protective equipment so as to minimise risks as much as possible.

How to Remove Asbestos

HSE requires that only HSE-licensed contractors remove asbestos or asbestos-containing materials. However, decisions on whether a particular job or work needs a license depend on the RISKS that it involves.

Licensing is not required if:

1. The exposure that employees have to asbestos fibers are sporadic and of low intensity. But exposure is not considered sporadic or low intensity if the asbestos concentration in the workplace air exceeds 0.6 fibers per cm3, over a span of 10 minutes.

2. Risk assessment verifies that the employee won't exceed the Control Limit's exposure to asbestos. This usually means that the work involved is:

a. Maintenance activities that are short and non-continuous. This happens when the work involves only one person, and the activities last less than an hour, in a seven-day period. The total number of hours spent by all the workers to remove asbestos or asbestos material should not exceed two hours;

b. When the asbestos fibers in the material to be removed are firmly linked in a matrix. These materials include: asbestos cement, articles of bitumen, resin or rubber that contains asbestos, and plastic. Materials that contain asbestos for their thermal and acoustic properties, like vinyl floor tiles, roofing felt, and electric cables, and also insulation products that are used for high temperatures but have no insulation purposes, like gaskets, washers, ropes, and seals, are also included;

c. Encapsulating and sealing asbestos-containing materials in good conditions; and

d. Collecting and analysing samples for air monitoring and control.

In retrospect, under the Asbestos Regulations, employees who work on asbestos insulation, asbestos coating, or asbestos insulating board (AIB) requires a license issued by the HSE.

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