I’ve noticed quite a few light fitting and switches contain dust from the walls / ceilings, what’s the standard procedure with asbestos?
The electricians I’ve worked with never seemed to be bothered by the presence of asbestos (this was in the mid to late 1990’s) .
I vaguely remember doing about asbestos at college but that was a long time ago!
I do asbestos awareness training annually with ukata, as their certificate expires yearly. Longer certificates can be gained with other bodies but I prefer doing it annually as it's a good reminder of the hidden dangers of asbestos, which is easy to forgot/ignore with longer duration certificates.
There's no way of telling whether something contains asbestos, unless it's analysed. It's not difficult to do. You can get five or six items tested for around £50. So get the responsible person / duty holder / home owner / etc to get things tested before any work starts. The problem is though they're disturbing the material by breaking bits off to get tested, but better that than bashing away on the job without knowing.
F
Not really true - they should have bagged it or sheeted and taped it - sheets rub against one another or could get scuffed being loaded. Actually you do not need to be an approved contractor to handle the cement sheets but you are supposed to be taking all reasonable precautions to prevent breakage and to contain any dust that is created.
We have a tip near us that will take it to order, but will only accept sealed "parcels".
Mike.
No PPE, and so far as I could see, no special measures in the van.
No need for it if the sheets were intact!
Early last year my neighbour and I had our cement- asbestos garage roof replaced. We had a roofer who would remove and replace the roof but he would not dispose of the sheets so we engaged a separate licensed asbestos removal company to dispose of the material. In the event two men turned up in a long wheelbase Transit, loaded the sheets into the back and issued the necessary certificate (I checked it was a genuine legitimate certificate as best I could) and drove off. A week later a lab analysis arrived by post. No PPE, and so far as I could see, no special measures in the van.
These things take about half a generation to become common knowledge and in a pre-internet era, only the very keen folk would be keeping up to date with every last change in the advice since whenever they qualified.
The idea of the average workman working to the latest edition of every rule book is actually quite modern.
From the 1970s onwards the data about how bad it could be really became very obvious to those looking at the latest figures, but it took time to change - hence artex formula changing in the mid 80s, along with brake pads and a host of other things. The law limited blue asbestos first, then brown then eventually all of it a nice timeline summary here .
Of course most folk would only loosely be following this, as almost no-one reads legislation the day it is made, and old stocks of materials would be used up first and so there is a good chance of a nasty surprise in any buildings older than about 20 years.
Mike.
There is a lot of scaremongering around nowadays with asbestos, rightly so. Putting it into persective though, if left undisturbed as garage roofing sheets or insulation sheets etc., it's safe enough. The problem arises when it is drilled, machined or damaged so producing airborne fluffy particles that are breathed in; it seems to quickly contaminate and remains clinging on to the lungs.
In the steel industry many moons ago, we used to get sheets of the stuff and place the lit, paraffin blowlamp against it for personal protection; if left too long, it would spall in layers with explosive results, as appies we would play around in this way. The house next door has a garage roof with corrogated asbestos sheeting, I am keeping watch in case it's removed, it needs expensive removal by specialists.
I had a smart meter fitted recently and the fitter reported that the gas meter was resting on a small asbestos sheet, I looked at it and pulled it out since it was thick hardboard, I demonstrated this by setting fire to it, outside of course. The fitter was still adamant that it was asbestos - a ruse for more money in removal for the bhoys?.
Jaymack
from the mid 80s onwards things like Artex were re-formulated to essentially remove the asbestos. In the UK it was only ever white asbestos, so not the worst risk, but on the other hand there is a lot of it about, and your chance of getting some exposure at some point is quite high.
And yes - it kills a few thousand folk year in the UK.
Mike
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