Asbestos question

[ubersonic]

I have spent all day looking on the HSE website and in regs/guidance but can't find an answer to this so if anybody knows the answer and where to find the documentation of it I would greatly appreciate it.

Asbestos gaskets are still quite common in machinery and when you go to a site you may have to disturb a gasket on some equipment, but its impossible ot tell beforehand if its an asbestos gasket or not, just because its not on the buildings asbestos survey doesn't mean its not there. This gives a problem because the guidance is pretty much to assume that everything is asbestos unless you know for sure otherwise

How the hell is this even a workable situation? under the letter of the regs/guidance I have been able to find if anybody has to work on pipes and sees a gasket they must assume it may contain asbestos, stop work, and advise the owner/council/whatever to have it tested by a licensed asbestos contractor. If we all did this we would be out of business in a snap and no work would ever be done anywhere. The has to be something else to this...

Help please.

 

[ubersonic]

Damn it, this is the nanny state just taken beyond the extreme to the ludicrous

Thanks for the info guys

not cynical. logical and spot on. some may argue not reasonably practicable. tell them ********.

Not reasonably practical is an understatement, try ridiculously impossible. The choice is basically don't follow the regs and risk a lawsuit, or follow the regs and go out of business as nobody will ever hire you when word gets around that's how you work

 

[ubersonic]

At the end of the day what is important is the people in the field that have to mend the pipe that potentialy has asbestos within it. They might be doing that kind of job day in and day out and it is these people that we need to protect from needless asbestos exposure.

Their the ones that are going ballistic about how stupidly OTT the regulations are these days

I work as a premise manager and I have type 2 surveys for all the buildings I manage. If I know a contractor is due on site I will meet with him and we will look at the register and have a brief documented chat and I wil complete a quick form detailing the converstation. If we suspect the area to contain asbestos I would have probably already been aware of the fact and ordered a type 3 survey or got another firm in to manage it for me. There are times when remedial jobs have to happen and you have to use better judgement I have signed off many jobs where I have given the contractor instructions to let me know if anything is found and work is to stop becuase like I said above it is the engineers at the rock face that matter.

So you would be perfectly happy if you sent somebody to change a boiler or something (anything) and they came back and said they couldn't proceed as the was a gasket that would be disturbed and they needed it testing before they can proceed as they have to assume its asbestos?

This isn't even limited to older sites, the installation could have been put in last year and under the regs I have seen they are still supposed to assume its asbestos unless they know for certain it isn't as the installation company could have used old gaskets they had in stock to try and save cash or gaskets imported from a country that still uses asbestos (most still do).

If your fine with all of that your one of the only premises managers that would be. Most would just send us off site and get somebody in who would do the work

 

[ubersonic]

This is exactly what the legislation is there to do. Its to protect that guy from later in life dying from cancer linked asbestosis.

Do you not find it a little ridiculous though? its like taking your car to a garage and the mechanic says "sorry I can't work on cars any more until they have been fully tested for asbestos, I know its a brand new car but the are a lot of Chinese brake parts coming into the country which contain asbestos so im going to have to assume your car has asbestos in it until its been proven otherwise"

 

[ubersonic]

Things got even more messed up today, somebody pointed something pretty comical out. Your not allowed to work on any equipment that may have asbestos in it (i.e everything), however the asbestos removal people are not allowed to touch the equipment as their not licenced gas engineers.

So its now illegal for anybody to do any work on the equipment (i.e service a boiler). Nice work HSE, nice work >.>

NB: Why are the fire brigade not prosecuted for breaking down doors without first having them tested for asbestos as per the regulations? (I know that's stupid, that's the point).

 

[ubersonic]

Bit of thread revival as I read it through and the misinformation annoyed me.

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Now, under CAR 2012 you can actually remove those items yourself IF you and/or your staff have the correct training AND the work is sporadic/short duration and you can prove that the work will not exceed the control limit.

Another thread revival, but this is the part that gives us a problem, the HSE says you can do it if you have the correct training, however the correct training is being a qualified asbestos contractor! Its the same as when they say gas fitters must have the correct training/qualifications (and by that they mean be gas safe registered).

 

[ubersonic]

Not quite true, as has already been pointed out with this link:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/licensing/non-licensed-work.htm

If you follow that link then look at the bottom where it points out that the regulations are due to change in 2012, it links to newer bits that say both licensed and non licensed work with asbestos requires the worker to be properly trained and the HSE define properly trained as having been on an appropriate course and being qualified (asbestos awareness courses do not count).