3
PRO INSTALLER JANUARY 2015
PRO NEWS
@proinstaller1
1.3 MILLION
TRADESPEOPLE AT
RISK FROM DANGERS
OF ASBESTOS
Health and Safety Executive has launched a new
safety campaign as an average of 20 tradespeople
die every week from asbestos related diseases.
Tradespeople, including construction workers, carpenters and painters and decorators, could come into contact
with deadly asbestos on
average more than 100 times
a year according to a new
survey commissioned by the
Health and Safety Executive
(HSE).
As well as illustrating how often
tradespeople can be exposed to
asbestos, the survey revealed some
common myths believed by those
at risk, with one in seven (14%)
believing that drinking a glass
of water will help protect them
from the deadly dust and one in
four (27%) thinking that opening
a window will help to keep them
safe.
Only a third (30%) of those
asked, were able to identify all the
correct measures for safe asbestos
working, whilst more than half
(57%) made at least one potentially lethal mistake in trying to
identify how to stay safe.
Twenty tradespeople, on average,
die every week from asbestos
related diseases.
Asbestos can be found in walls
and ceilings, or the structure of a
building, as well as a host of other
places like floor tiles, boilers, toilet
cisterns, guttering and soffits.
It can be disturbed by basic
maintenance work like drilling
holes and sanding and once disturbed, the microscopic fibres can
prove lethal if breathed in, causing
lung disease and cancer.
The research, undertaken by
Censuswide in September 2014,
shows that while more than half
(53%) knew that asbestos could be
in old buildings built before 1970,
only 15% knew that it could still
be found in buildings built up to
the year 2000.
And although many of those
surveyed could pinpoint some as-
bestos-containing materials, others
were clueless; with only 19% recognising it could also be hidden
in common fixtures such as toilet
seats and cisterns.
To encourage tradespeople to
think about asbestos on every job
so they are prepared to