Adequate asbestos safety management training is being ignored by many, according to the UK Asbestos Training Association (UKATA), which has warned that the health of many workers may be being compromised.
UKATA says the number of prosecutions brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been on the rise and many examples cite bad asbestos handling practice.
Craig Evans, general manager of UKATA, said: “It is imperative that any tradesperson who may come across asbestos during the course of their work is aware of the legal requirement and furthermore knows how to protect themselves and those around them.
“Asbestos Awareness training is the absolute minimum requirement for anyone who may come into contact with asbestos although this level of training does not permit them to work with any forms of asbestos-containing materials.”
In response to these concerns, UKATA is preparing to launch its latest Train Safe, Work Safe, Keep Safe initiative, which offers small traders around the UK the opportunity to have some free asbestos safety training.
Mr. Evans said: “In the last few years our members have delivered over half a million asbestos training courses but we are all too aware there are still thousands of tradespeople who have not received asbestos training of any kind. They are at risk of coming into contact with deadly fibres if they inadvertently disturb asbestos during building work and for this reason our members are generously offering free training at their own expense to individual tradespeople who may be unaware that such training exists.”
He added: “We need to raise awareness of the real dangers of asbestos exposure and let people know that it’s actually most definitely not a thing of the past.”
The launch of the new training initiative follows criticism leveled at the HSE by UKATA in February 2015, which claimed that the HSE’s web app ‘Beware Asbestos’ gave “completely the wrong message to tradespeople” about working with asbestos.
Deaths caused by mesothelioma – an incurable form of lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure – have reached more than 1,800 deaths a year in the UK, and this number is expected to rise to a peak of 2,000 over the next five years, according to recent estimates from the British Medical Journal.
