The asbestos containing materials have been proved to be toxic under certain circumstances. Like, when they are disturbed or re-positioned, they might release its fibres into the air. When these fibres are inhaled by the people, it can cause serious damages to their health. This has made the removal of asbestos a must when renovating or demolishing the building or premise. Along with that, the residents of the building cannot remove asbestos themselves, they need a professional, trained contractor for the purpose. However, there are some rules when removing the asbestos containing materials from home or a building, as per the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

All Rules to Follow

The rules state that the asbestos containing materials present at the time can be left in place if they are in good condition and may not get damaged soon. Their condition is managed and monitored from time to time in order to make sure that they are not re-positioned. If a person is responsible for managing of the non-domestic premise, they have to ensure their ‘duty to manage’ is fulfilled. That person is responsible for anyone working or using the building in case of the exposure to asbestos containing materials or health risks due to that. If a particular person is seeking to do a maintenance work in the premise, or on plant or equipment which might contain asbestos in them, they have to analyze and identify the type, condition, and location of it. They have to work out the risks and control and manage them accordingly so that no one is exposed. For anyone who is going to be exposed to the asbestos, it is important and mandatory that they are trained for the situation. This might include, the maintenance workers and any other individual who might have to disturb the position of the asbestos containing materials or come in to contact with it.

For example, the cable installers. Along with these, the people who will be involved in the removal of asbestos work.  In the majority of the cases, the needs and rules for the licensed work remain the same. The work for dealing with asbestos is required to be done by a licensed contractor. This work procedure includes most of the asbestos removal work, all work with sprayed asbestos coatings and asbestos lagging. Though, most of this work include with asbestos insulation and asbestos insulation board (AIB). Some of the non-licensed work is required to be notified to the relevant enforcing authority of the time. It is required that the written records of the work is maintained of all the non-licensed work and has to be notified and updated. For example, maintaining a record stating, a list of workers on the job, the level of exposure of asbestos containing materials on those workers. It is not required to air monitor the work on every job, the basic need is that an estimate of the level of exposure is made on the basis of the collective experiences from the previous tasks, or from the published guidance.