Asbestos is an extremely hazardous substance that causes serious ill-health to anyone who disturbs or damages it. Workers can come across asbestos when carrying out construction and maintenance tasks. Asbestos Awareness training will give operators and supervisors the knowledge and information required to identify asbestos, and how to avoid disturbing it.
What Is Asbestos?
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibre used in used in building insulation, flooring, roofing, and was also sprayed on walls as floors. Although using asbestos is now banned in the UK, it was commonly used in the 1990’s. The three types of asbestos most often used in the UK were blue (crocidolite), brown (amosite) and white (chrysotile).
Why is Asbestos Dangerous?
According to the HSE, Asbestos kills around 5,000 people each year. It is also believed 20 tradesmen die each week, as a result of past exposure.
The risk from asbestos come from breathing in the fibres when they become airborne. Exposure to asbestos containing materials can lead to serious and fatal diseases such as lung cancer, scarring of the lungs or pleural thickening.
Are My Employees at Risk?
The risk from asbestos comes from breathing in the fibres when asbestos is disturbed or damaged.
Workers at risk are generally those in jobs involving building refurbishment, maintenance and similar trades. They are most at risk when working on an unfamiliar site or a house built prior to 2000. The risk increases when workers are unable to identify or flag asbestos-containing materials to the relevant people on site.
Employers are required to assess the risks facing their workers. If asbestos could be encountered this needs to be included in your risk assessment. The assessment should be carried out no matter the size of the company. If you have five or more employees, you are legally required to document your risk assessment.
Within the risk assessment, consideration should be given as to how to reduce the risk to workers. Employees need to be given the relevant information, instruction and training to keep them safe at work. Supervision is also required to ensure that workers follow the controls laid out within the risk assessment, and processes in place.
Types of Training
Asbestos Awareness training can be an accredited course approved by a safety organisation, or an in-house course delivered by a training company.
The purpose of the training is to comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. Operators and supervisors will develop their understanding of what asbestos is and where they may encounter it. Training also covers the dangers associated with asbestos exposure, and what to do if they discover asbestos. This includes work with potential asbestos containing materials, accidental discovery of asbestos, and accidental damage to asbestos and asbestos containing materials.
Asbestos Awareness training does not qualify workers to carry out work that will knowingly disturb asbestos. A higher level of training and instruction is needed to handle and remove asbestos. This further training takes into account whether the work required is non-licensed; notifiable non-licensed work (NNLW); or licensed work and should be job specific.
Asbestos Awareness at Raeburn Training
Raeburn Training offer both online or face-to-face options for Asbestos Awareness training. The face-to-face training is most commonly run as a closed course, either at your location or here at Raeburn Training. You can find more information on our classroom-based course here.
We can also book you an online course. This takes around 3 hours to complete and can be undertaken in the computer suite within our offices in Kirkcaldy. We can also arrange for this training to be undertaken remotely in any location, so long as there is access to a stable internet connection. Further information on our ROSPA approved course is available on our website, along with prices.
If you need non-licensed; notifiable non-licensed work (NNLW); or licensed work asbestos training, we work with a large number of carefully selected third party providers. Please contact us with your required dates, and we will source a training solution for you.
