Good Afternoon, I have a simple question that is confusing myself and most of my peers that I am hoping you can shed some light on or offer guidance. We provide asbestos training for our employees. Part of this training involves showing samples of various asbestos materials enclosed in glass jars, taped up and labelled. Is this a breach under the REACH directive? A lot of the samples were taken and enclosed before 2005. We obviously want to be seen as being compliant with the directive. Please could you advise if we can continue using the samples or if these need to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Cheers

Jamie - Without looking to check REACH requirements in detail my knowledge of REACH is quite limited so I can't specifically answer your question. Even so, over the past 20 years or so I regularly used a sample of loose asbestos insulation material as a training aid when conducting training sessions for headteachers, school governors, etc. The material was in a sealed transparent plastic bag inside a suitably labelled and sealed transparent plastic container. As an attention-grabbing introduction to asbestos, I would introduce the material as a class 1 carcinogen, i.e a cancer-causing agent, and invite trainees to pass the container round and look at its contents. (As you mention that your samples are in glass jars, is there a risk of the jars being broken inadvertently and a related need to consider using more durable containers?) The asbestos was also useful for prompting some discussion and thought about risk management by asking if it was okay for me to have passed the container of hazardous material round. The usual consensus was yes because the material was double sealed, clearly labelled and remained under relatively close supervision. Moreover, I would tell each trainee group that they were evidently intelligent people! The next question elicited the expected response that it would NOT be okay to leave the same container in a room of unsupervised pupils. When the container was not being used at training sessions it was always kept locked away in a cupboard with other training aids. My view was that the asbestos sample was used and stored with appropriate regard for health and safety. Do other forum users apart from jamie use similar samples for training purposes and, if so, with any extra precautions beyond those I've described? p.s. This topic reminds me of my first encounter with asbestos as unsealed geological samples, including crocidolite, being passed round during geology practical sessions at college in the early 1970s. Though we were told about the properties of different types of asbestos and what made them commercially useful, there seemed to be little or no mention of their hazardous nature. Furthermore, I had no inkling then that I would subsequently have a career in OS&H which would include a fair amount of involvement with asbestos. Goodness knows if or when the college samples were sealed at a later date and what happened to them when sadly the geology department closed in the late 1990s.