Pro Installer January 2015 - Issue 22 | Página 3

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