Posted By Brenda H
Have fished through the acop and various guidance documents on this but can't really find what i'm looking for (probably completely missing it!)

With regards to informing employees who carry out general maintenance in premises (domestic & non-domestic) of the location of ACM's; is it acceptable to inform individuals of the location of ACM's by:-

a) training employees to recognise ACM's
b) informed employees of the specific location of the ACM
c) give generic information on the property regarding the location of ACM's? i.e. the kitchen is thought to have contained asbestos, the hall is thought to have contained....etc?

Thanks

Posted By p winter
Although a register is certainly required, I doubt it's usefulness if, say, a contractor or employee is simply required to review it before they start work. These can be pretty substantial docs.

I would have thought identifying specific locations, or general locations where a contractor is visiting lots of similar buildings and briefing this to the contractor/employee before they start work.

Posted By Brenda H
Thanks Peter, just to clarify, we have the register and location of the acm's but at present we are not informing employees individually, or specifically of the location of the acm in a property they are going out to do work on.

Obviously the team is on the road so coming back to the office to check the register isn't going to happen in reality.

I guess the crux of the question is..... where individuals are required to work on properties, are they to be given the exact location of the asbestos? rather than giving them training and saying that the premises has got asbestos, be aware of it?!

If so, can you point me in the direction of where, or the interpretation, of the requirement to give them the location etc?

You know what it's like, in reality passing on this info to employees is a general requirement of most legislation. But apparently before I started the job we were audited by a housing commission who said the current approach (training the guys to find it themselves) was sufficient or informing them that asbestos was in the property, but not where it was! (which didn't seem remotely helpful to me!)

Thanks

Posted By Deborah Bolton
Ok you have the register, you know where the acm's are but the people that are going to be exposed to it haven't got a clue - or am I reading this the wrong way?

The reason these regulations were introduced was because trades other than asbestos removers were experiencing high levels of asbestos related illness because they were being exposed to asbestos when running cables, drilling holes etc and hadn't got a clue it was there.

The purpose therefore being that owner/occupiers identified the presence of all acm's and then ensured that this information was passed directly to the people at the front end so that they didn't disturb the asbestos in their work activity and therefore weren't exposed to risk.

Can the housing commission honestly say based on the information that you give your employees that they are not at risk from accidental exposure? I would think that was quite difficult - even the epxerts sometimes get their identification wrong.

There is also a requirement that acm's should be marked to warn employees & tennants that they may be at risk - has this been done? I know this is immotive and causes all sorts of issues having experienced it with local authority housing and schools but by burying their heads in the sand the housing commission are not helping you fulfill your obligation as an employer or their obligation to you and their tennants.

Posted By Ron Hunter
Agreed P.Winter. Employees/contractors must be INFORMED (Reg 4(9)(c) of CAR 2006) not left to identify (or not!) from Registers etc.

Further to other post above. I am not aware of ANY legal requirement to mark or label ACMs in premises.

Posted By GARRY WIZZ
On a commercial site I would expect to find a sign on or next to any ACM as a visual warning to any person attending.

I am to attend a meeting this morning and shall bring to the attention of the owner that if our lads are going to work on thier site it is the easy and safe way for all of us to cooperate in ensuring that we control the hazard.

When confronted by a sign I expect the lads to conform to training and SSOW.

As for recognition of ACM, very hit aND MISS.



Garry

Garry

Posted By Adrian Watson
Gary,

I think you are missing the point. Workers do not have to identify asbestos materials; they have to identify that the materials are NOT asbestos if they are to work on them. If they cannot, they may work on them but should take measures to prevent exposure to dusts.

If surveys are carried out then they must be communicated to workers. However even if they are communicated to workers, they must be taught to work safety with all materials.

There is no requirement to label materials. In fact I have found that labelling of materials is dangerous and should be avoided. The best practice is to put up a warning sign in the premises, informing workers that "this premises contains asbestos - refer to asbestos register before carrying out work".

Regards Adrian Watson

P.S. No excess risk of asbestos related disease has been shown in maintenace workers. Regulation 4 was put in place to prevent future disease in these workers.