11
PRO INSTALLER FEBRUARY 2015
PRO NEWS
@proinstaller1
ASBESTOS SAFETY
CAMPAIGN GAINS
MOMENTUM
20 tradespeople, on average, die every
week from asbestos related diseases
At the end of 2014, the Glass and Glazing Federation
(GGF) fully supported the Health and Safety Executive’s
(HSE) Asbestos Campaign to help tradespeople at
risk from the dangers of asbestos exposure.
Since then the GGF
has been delighted
to see the Campaign
gather momentum
with new survey
results, new information pages on the HSE
website, guidance on
training and a free
web app.
A recent survey commissioned by HSE identified
that tradespeople could
come into contact with
deadly asbestos on average
more than 100 times a year.
A worrying number did not
know when they may actually face the danger, as only
15% of those surveyed knew
asbestos could still be found
in buildings built up to the
year 2000.
The survey also 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.
The ‘Beware Asbestos’
campaign aims to raise
awareness of the real and
current risks facing today’s
tradespeople. It also seeks
to help them work more
safely when doing jobs that
might disturb asbestos, to
help protect them from
harm.
The campaign has seen
the launch of a new, free
web app to help tradespeo-
Protect yourself and your
workmates with the FREE
Beware Asbestos web app now
‘Asbestos is still a very real danger and the survey
findings suggest that the people who come into contact
with it regularly often don’t know where it could be and
worryingly don’t know how to deal with it correctly’
ple easily identify where
they could come into contact with asbestos as they
go about their day-to-day
work. The web app leads
tradespeople through a list
of simple multiple-choice
questions about the type of
building they are working
in, the job that they’re doing, and the type of asbestos containing material they
are working on.
Depending on their answers, they will be:
• told to stop work and get
a licensed asbestos contractor if the asbestos risk
is too high;
• taken to a simple how-to
guide giving them easy to
follow step-by-step information for small, non-licensed tasks;
• told if there is no asbestos
risk and so they are safe
to continue work.
The web app also directs
the user to HSE’s new
asbestos pages for trades-
people, where they can
find additional guidance on
training requirements and
further asbestos information
at www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/tradesperson.htm
Philip White, HSE’s Chief
Inspector for Construction,
said:
“Asbestos is still a very
real danger and the survey
findings suggest that the
people who come into contact with it regularly often
don’t know where it could
be and worryingly don’t
know how to deal with it
correctly,