Posted By simon carrier We have a number of areas on site that contain asbestos, all of which is encapsulated and identified. Some of the asbestos is in an office aenvironment and during a recent refurb it was decided to make a "feature" of the asbestos downpipe and box it in with plater board. Now that the office is nicely painted and looks pretty some clever bloke(me) wants to put a caution asbestos label all over the new paint work, this for obvious reasons is not going down well. So my question is with the asbestos suitably encapsulated and labelled behind the plasterboard is it acceptable to use a small discrete sign warning of asbestos behind the plaster? We have a register which is maintained so we are aware that asbestos is present and its current condition.

Posted By Hilary Charlton Hi The new Regulations which came out last year surely placed a "Duty to Manage" responsibility on us for asbestos. I watch these Regulations very carefully as we have an asbestos roof which is in dire need of TLC. Surely if this is boxed in you cannot adequately monitor the condition, looking for signs of wear and tear, cracks and so on. You don't need to put up signs, but you do need an adequate register of where the asbestos is on site. However, I should take very careful note of the last requirement of the Duty to Manage which states "monitoring and reviewing arrangements to be in place including keeping a check on the condition of asbestos and presumed asbestos containing materials". I wish you luck with this one - it's nasty. Hilary

Posted By Stuart Nagle Simon. I agree with Ron. Ther is a duty to manage and this includes a register (which you've got) and a need to inform persons of the location, risks posed and what can and cannot be done in respect of maintenance. Putting stickers on is nice, but if managed correctly should not be necessary in this case. Asbestos cement is a robust product, and if it was in good condition, barring being hit with a hefty blow by a hammer, it should stay in good condition for years, so there is no real need to rip open the enclosure to inspect it often!!

Posted By simon carrier Thank you all for your contribution it has been most welcome. To update you on what we are doing. We have decided to do a combination of the suggestions raised. Firstly we will be labelling the asbestos itself, then we have decided to produce a drawing of all our buildings and mark on that drawing the location of any asbestos contained therein. We will still be maintaining our register and monitoring the condition of the enclosure,it follows that if the enclosure is not damaged then the asbestos behind it is also not damaged. Thanks again for your assistance