Grave Risk to Asbestos Exposure in Houses
Dr Linda Waldman and Heather Williams, through a research project commissioned by UCATT, a construction union, have made astounding discoveries, which they have complied in their report titled ‘As Safe as Houses?’.
The report discusses various loopholes in the law relating to asbestos in private properties, which could lead to grave risk of asbestos exposure for the people living in the houses, as well as the maintenance workers. The researchers have studied in detail the management and disposal of asbestos in houses, and have made recommendations to improve the situation.
Its first set of recommendations relates to the reporting of presence of asbestos in properties. Currently, several methods are used by the local authorities and the registered social landlords to inform tenants about the possibility of asbestos presence in a property. This procedure needs to be standardized.
The report also says that the duty of social landlords to manage asbestos risks should also cover internal areas of a property in addition to the common parts and stairwells. Moreover, the social landlords must keep an updated record of asbestos presence in all of their properties.
At the time of the sale of a private property, it is impossible to discover asbestos presence due to lack of any legal duty regarding the same. Other than the expensive detailed structural surveys, no other source of information like Housing Information Packs contains details about asbestos presence. The only solution therefore is to have a mandatory asbestos survey before the sale of private houses.
The second set of recommendations in the report deal with protecting maintenance workers. There is an immediate requirement for reforms to inform construction and maintenance workers about presence of asbestos and providing means of recognising it. One recommendation is to attach a warning to all the power tools about the harmful effects of asbestos. Another is to change the course structure in apprentice training programs for construction and maintenance workers to include information about risks of exposure to asbestos and ways to ensure safety. Contact the experts at Workplace Law Training to find out about their accredited IOSH course, which can assist companies in training staff to be aware of the proper health and safety procedures for all kinds of workplace situations.
