The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 (CAWR) tackles the biggest occupational health killer in the UK – asbestos-related disease. Of the 5,000 people currently dying each year from such diseases 25% have once worked in the building & maintenance trades and often would have worked unknowingly on or near to asbestos containing materials (ACMs). Whilst virtually all other activities involving potential exposure to asbestos have now ceased, evidence suggests that this vulnerable group is still at considerable risk from unknowing exposure to asbestos.
The requirements of the new duty seek to prevent further unknowing exposure to asbestos of building and maintenance workers, with the aim of saving 5,000 lives over the next 50 years.
Duty requirements
The duty to manage requires those in control of premises to:
- Take reasonable steps to determine the location and condition of materials likely to contain asbestos;
- Presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not;
- Make and keep an up to date record of the location and condition of the ACMs or presumed ACMs in the premises;
- Assess the risk of the likelihood of anyone being exposed to fibres from these materials;
- Prepare a plan setting out how the risks from the materials are to be managed;
- Take the necessary steps to put the plan into action;
- Review and monitor the plan periodically; and
- Provide information on the location and condition of the materials to anyone who is liable to work on or disturb them.
What premises are affected?
The new regulation covers all non-domestic premises, whatever type of business is carried out in them. It also covers the common areas of domestic premises including halls, stairwells, lift shafts and roof spaces.
Who is the duty holder?
All those who have responsibility for the maintenance and/or repair of non-domestic premises have duties under this Regulation. The extent of the legal duty is determined by the terms of any tenancy agreement or contract that applies, and in the absence of any such agreement, on the degree of control the party has over the premises.
The duty holder may well be the landlord, tenant or a managing agent, depending on the circumstances of the case. In some situations, responsibility could be shared between two or more parties.
The Regulation also includes a duty to cooperate, which applies widely. This will, for example, require a tenant to allow a landlord to gain access to a building to carry out a survey. Also a building surveyor or architect who had plans which show information on the whereabouts of asbestos would be expected to make these available to the duty holder at a reasonable cost.
Summary of Practical Steps & Advice
- Businesses and organisations need to ensure that their managers, maintenance and engineering staff, including health and safety representatives and contractors, are fully aware of the new Regulations and the issues involved;
- No unqualified person or un-licensed contractor should attempt investigation or contact with (potential) asbestos containing materials in any circumstances;
- Identify who has the duty in relation to the building you occupy to comply with the Regulations and ensure that the person responsible (particularly if this is external to the business - e.g. a landlord) is aware of their legal responsibilities and intends to fully comply with the Regulations;
- Follow up to ensure that compliance with the Regulations to carry out a suitable assessment has been achieved;
- If you are the person with the responsibility for compliance with the Regulations, seek professional advice from a qualified surveyor, or other building professional, on how to approach your duty to manage the risk of asbestos in your premises, including a review of your existing practices and documentation, a visual survey, sample collection and analysis (where appropriate) and staff training.
Asbestos Overview
In the USA, asbestos related injury is one of the fastest growing causes of legal actions. It is estimated that asbestos litigation will continue for another 40 years and involve over a million people and $200 billion in legal compensation and costs.
For the UK, asbestos represents the largest occupational health problem to have ever occurred. Asbestos related diseases account for 3,000 deaths each year and an estimated 50,000 deaths from mesothelioma and similar conditions have occurred since 1968 with a quarter of deaths occurring in the building and maintenance trades. The situation is predicted to become worse over the next 20 years as latent health conditions arising from exposures in the 1950’s to 70’s start to manifest.
The introduction of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2002 represents the final stage of targeted enforcement by the HSE to determine the presence of asbestos in premises and assess and control the risk arising from it. The HSE estimates that significant asbestos risks remain in approximately 800,000 commercial premises in the UK.
Asbestos has been widely used in the building industry over the last 100 years and particularly in the last 50 years up until it was finally banned in the late 1990s. Many homes contain asbestos without the owners even being aware of its presence.
Most people know what an asbestos roof looks like but very few business owners realise that asbestos can also be found in quite a diverse range of relatively common building products. Some of these are as follows:
- Asbestos roofing material.
- Asbestos wall panels.
- Asbestos ceiling panels.
- Asbestos fire blankets.
- Some acoustic ceiling tiles.
- Some soundproofing wall panels.
- Some soffit panels (located under the eaves).
- Some felt roof-lining materials.
- Some insulation materials used to lag hot pipes and hot water cylinders.
- Some insulation materials used in ceilings.
- Some Hessian covered cork notice boards.
- Some vinyl floor tiles.
- Some Artex type wall and ceiling coverings.
- Some bricks used in night storage heaters.
- Some bricks and products used in fireplaces.
It is quite possible that there is asbestos present in your business premises but while you should be wary of this there might not be any great cause for alarm. Asbestos can cause lung cancer if inhaled as a fine dust, which can be produced when it is sawed, sanded, drilled, brushed or disturbed. Provided asbestos is not disturbed in any way, the likelihood of major problems developing is very much reduced.
Asbestos Surveys
Regulation 4 of The Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 requires that owners of commercial and communal premises must make up a plan to manage asbestos in their property. They must ensure that any asbestos present is not disturbed in a way that may result in a hazard to health. In order to develop such a plan, it may be necessary to carry out an Asbestos Survey.
Owners or prospective purchasers of a property may wish to have an Asbestos Survey carried out. This is generally a staged process as follows:
- A Surveyor will make an initial visit to the property. The cost for this is usually about £400. From this initial inspection of the building the Surveyor will be able to identify any areas, which might contain asbestos. In most cases the Surveyor will not take any samples on the initial visit unless the building is relatively small and the possible presence of asbestos is only limited to one or two areas. If samples are taken the additional cost will usually be of the order of £100.00 for the first sample and £60 for any further samples.
- Having completed his visit, the Surveyor will prepare an initial report outlining his findings and proposing further action together with an estimate of costs. He will also be able to advise the owner if it is likely that there is an applicable legislative requirement to manage any asbestos in the building.
- In most cases the second step in the process will be a definitive survey of the property noting each area where asbestos may exist and taking samples of materials for testing. The samples will be analysed in a laboratory to establish whether any asbestos is present and a full report will be generated. The costs for this stage will be additional to the costs for stage one.
- The final step will depend very much on the results of the survey, any legislative requirement and the wishes of the owner of the property. In some cases a decision to remove the asbestos may be taken, in other cases it may be decided to leave the asbestos products in situ and just ensure that the building is managed in a way whereby the asbestos is not disturbed.
For stage one, the target time for the surveyor to perform the initial survey is normally three or four working days (from placement or order and payment). The target time for production of the initial report will be a further three or four working days. Should samples have been taken during stage one, a further fourteen days will be required before the results of the laboratory analysis will be available.
It should be noted that the removal of asbestos from a building is a very complex and costly process. It should only be carried out by a contractor licensed by the HSE, who will ensure that it is done safely and that the asbestos, once removed, is taken to a licensed disposal site where it will not be a danger to other people.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Full details of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2675) are available through HMSO.
In support of the new duty, HSE has published:
The web-based “Good Practice Guidance“ provides a useful supplement to those case studies contained within the Comprehensive guide to managing asbestos in premises. The aim of this HSE product is to provide information on the differing approaches that both public and commercial organisations have adopted in tackling their responsibilities under the new duty. The Guidance gives practical ideas to both those who are only just starting to manage their asbestos and those that need some additional help on ways to approach the tasks before them. Visit www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos.