Asbestos is a killer.  Unfortunately despite everyone knowing about the dangers of working with asbestos, many employees fail to protect the lives of their employees.  So to help encourage better safety procedures involving asbestos the HSE have asked for health and safety consultants to provide a few hours of free asbestos awareness training.

4000 Hours of Free Asbestos Training

In total the HSE are hoping to offer 4000 hours of free training from various health and safety services.  They choose 4000 as their target for September as that is approximately the amount of deaths which are caused by asbestos related diseases every single year.

In addition to the 4000 training provided by health and safety services, the HSE will add an additional 4000 hours’ worth of free training which will be available online.  The free training will be available to tradesmen throughout October and November.  The HSE wish to train up the tradesmen as it is estimate that 20 tradesmen die from being exposed to asbestos.  The tradesmen being targeted in particular include:

• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Joiners

Asbestos is a Present Danger

The director of the Health and Safety Executive, Karen Clayton, said that there are around 500,000 buildings in the UK which still have asbestos present.  The training is going to be aimed at giving tradesmen lifesaving information about how to protect themselves from the hidden killer.  It is the aim to prevent another generation suffering from the diseases caused by the substance.

In the UK, since the 1960’s, there has been over 40,000 deaths from the Cancer mesothelioma, which is asbestos related.  The Chair of the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum, Tony Whitson, said that many of the cancer sufferers inform them that they were never even told about the dangers of working with the material.

Asbestos Related Diseases Caused By the Fibres

The four main diseases related directly to asbestos are:

• Asbestosis which is the scarring of the tissue in the lungs caused by asbestos fibres
• The cancer mesothelioma
• Asbestos related lung cancer
• Diffuse pleural thickening, a lung disease which is non-malignant

Health and Safety Consultants Offer Training

If you are unable to get to any of the free training sessions there is always training which is available from the health and safety consultants such as Veritas Consulting.  There are three types of training which are stated in regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations of 2006.  The three requirements include:

• Asbestos Awareness.  This is the training provided by the health and safety services and informed employees which will educate workers who may come across and disturb asbestos in their work.
• Licensable Work. This is the training for workers who will be licensed to remove the asbestos insulation and the insulating board,
• Non-licensable Work. This will train up people who are not licensed to remove the asbestos.  This may be roofers or people who work in demolition.

Health and safety consultants are the best people to turn to about asbestos training. Call 0800 1488 677 and speak to the experts today.

About David Cant

A chartered (fellow) safety and risk management practitioner with 20+ years of experience. David provides a healthy dose of how-to articles, advice and guidance to make compliance easier for construction professionals, Architects and the built environment. Get social with David on Twitter and Linkedin.