I work for a storage equipment company and our fitters regularly drill into concrete floors ready to anchored equipment pallet racking. The question of the possibility of asbestos containing materials in floor tiles, adhesives, and paint on floor has been raised. Yes we would look at the asbestos register and any safety file held by the client. But in the real world historically warehouse managers have gone out brought the floor paint etc and put in on the floor. Does anyone know when these products containing asbestos disappeared from the market so we can give some guidance on likelihood?

Yes, the final ban was in 1999. You should, however, consider as Nick says the possiblity of some products falling through the net as it were. Both inadvertantly and indeed deliberately. I have experience of asbestos containing materials being found within concrete floors as well. During construction some shuttering seemed to be made up from anything that happened to be at hand ('resourceful' construction workers). So be aware that the drilling process itself may contact ACMs not just on the floor surface but within it too. The age and make up of the building may give an indication as to whether this is a factor to consider (anything built or refurbished pre 2000 may contain asbestos). The drilling process has not been totally curtailed but beefed up control measures are now put in place whenever drilling is planned.

Dennis, It sounds like you have engineers going to customer premises an installing the racking? If that's the case then the duty holder has to identify, record and manage the asbestos contained in the premises under regulation 4 of the control of asbestos regulations. As an employer you have a duty under Reg 5 & 6 to assess whether ACM may be disturbed by your work an/or expose your employees to asbestos and make suitable arrangements to control that. Suggested reading - http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l143.pdf http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l127.pdf http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/essentials/ A wealth of information available at - http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/index.htm

Save your money there Denton. A "type 3" (?) survey of someone else's property (?) won't tell you any more than you know already. Yes, a failure of protocols, training, and safe system of work, but let's keep this in perspective. 2 x 12mm holes drilled through a few mm of floor tile containing a very small % of asbestos is not going to release much in the way of fibres. Chances are that air and swab sampling at that time would have come up with a zero count. "Health Surveillance" is not a meaningful reaction to the event either, from a medical perspective there is nothing to see or measure, and no comparative baseline. May I suggest that your future method involve a careful damp-down and lifting (in as few pieces as possible) of any floor tiles in your way, as opposed to drilling through. Some practical training around the Asbestos Task Manual (beyond "asbestos awareness training") would be a much more worthwhile investment. If you want to placate your Client, that engage an analyst to go discuss the matter with him. This will allow the Client to gain a proper perspective on the actual degree of risk - which is as near zero as makes no difference.