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Is Asbestos Awareness Training Mandatory?
If you work in construction, property development or are looking to deal with asbestos in your home, you might have encountered signs of asbestos throughout the property. If this is the case, you are right to show concern. Asbestos is a dangerous substance. So, why is asbestos dangerous, who needs asbestos training?
But first, is asbestos awareness training mandatory? Asbestos awareness training is mandatory for anyone supervising a team that might encounter asbestos through building work. Training is not mandatory for workers but is strongly advisable. It is intended to keep people safe by identifying asbestos and reducing asbestos’s harmful effects by becoming agitated and airborne. Find out why you should become accredited in asbestos awareness, helping reduce the effects of asbestos exposure on your workers and others who may come in contact with it.
Asbestos awareness training is mandatory here in the UK, as issued by the Health and Safety Executive, Regulation 10 of ‘The Control of Asbestos Regulations (2012)’. This regulation stipulates that those who are liable to be exposed to asbestos, or who provide supervision for such employees are aware of:
- the health effects and properties of asbestos;
- the types of products or materials likely to contain asbestos;
- the operations which could result in asbestos exposure and the importance of the controls in place to minimise and prevent exposure;
- safe work practices, control measures, and relevant PPE; the purpose, limitations and proper use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment;
- the emergency procedures in place should the above fail.
To ensure the above training is carried out safely, you, as a supervisor must ensure that the training you provide is:
- Given at regular intervals
- Adapted to change
- Adapted to the degree of exposure presented by your Asbestos Risk Assessment.
Asbestos awareness training can be completed online, in accordance with the laws set out by the Health and Safety Executive, should you need to renew your team on their understanding of asbestos awareness through situational change.
Note that Asbestos Awareness does not provide training to people handling asbestos. It only provides the ability to recognise asbestos in its many forms.
No, you shouldn’t agitate asbestos until you have received full training in asbestos handling and are wearing full PPE suited to the task of handling asbestos. Agitating the fibres of asbestos and causing them to become airborne is what makes this mineral so potent to human health once breathed in.
There are three main levels of information, instruction and training when working with asbestos. These relate to:
- Asbestos awareness
- Non-licensable work with asbestos including Notifiable Non-licensed Work (NNLW)
- Licensable work with asbestos.
Asbestos awareness training is just the first step in becoming competent in understanding asbestos and its harmful effects. But which professions need asbestos awareness training?
Both workers and supervisors need to be made aware of and given the ability to recognise asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). Then they need to know what to do if they come across them in order to protect themselves and others. This training is important for anyone that would ever be likely to encounter asbestos. This might include many different industries and jobs, some of which you might find surprising. The most common jobs that would require asbestos training are:
- Building surveyors
- General maintenance workers
- Plumbers
- Builders
- Joiners
- Roofers
- Gas fitters
- Heating and ventilation engineers
Some other areas that would greatly benefit from asbestos awareness training would be:
- Police officers
- Firefighters
- Teachers Computer or data installers
This is due to the unfortunate proliferation of asbestos use up until changes were made in 1985, 1999 and 2012 respectively. Because much still remains in building predating the 1990s, it would greatly benefit many professions to be able to spot asbestos and be aware of how to proceed with finding it.
Read more on the Asbestos Regulations by following the link.
The UK Government realised that asbestos was harmful to people’s respiratory systems as early as 1965. However, it wasn’t until 1999 that bans across all varieties of asbestos were introduced. From 1965, a ban was set in place on ‘brown asbestos’. Brown asbestos is a rougher, more brittle variety of asbestos which poses a more significant threat to people's health.
‘White asbestos’ on the other hand is considered to be a less dangerous form of asbestos, but one that still poses a significant risk to people's health if its fibres are inhaled.
Read more on the harmful effect of asbestos with regards to the different types with our dedicated pieces on Asbestos Regulations: Everything You Need To Know and Why Was Asbestos Banned in the UK?
To keep people safe, the government updated their previous regulations to include training specifications on licensable and non-licensable work around asbestos. Whilst this update made some changes to the regulations meant that training remained mandatory. This is due to the severe health hazards that asbestos continues to pose.
Getting online training, also known as e-training, for asbestos awareness, is promoted by government regulators (paragraph 265). A quick online course can be the difference in long-term life-altering health effects caused by asbestos just by knowing how to identify it.
Our online course provides a UK-based guide to spotting asbestos in British and Irish buildings. This gives the user a realistic understanding of the historic uses of asbestos across the British Isles.
Contact HSEDocs today to get your team fully up to date with asbestos awareness and help reduce risk should they ever come into contact with asbestos, or follow our link below for access to the courses, risk assessments and further information.