All trades and contractors have various legal obligations concerning asbestos. Asbestos must be assumed present in areas to be refurbished unless you have appropriate information to indicate that it is not.
Legal obligations concerning trades/contractors are:
- A Refurbishment and Demolition Survey must be undertaken before works start, which may disturb the fabric of any building.
- A Refurbishment and Demolition Survey must be undertaken before a building is demolished.
- Trades/contractors that undertake any works which may disturb the fabric of anybuilding or potentially disturb asbestos, must attend an asbestos awareness course.
Having an Asbestos Refurbishment and Demolition Survey undertaken before starting works, could assist in:
- Reducing the risk of exposing yourself, family, clients, colleagues, and the public to asbestos.
- Reducing the risk of contaminating your client’s premises with asbestos.
- Providing a summary of asbestos containing materials that would be disturbed, by planned works (if present).
- Planning and budgeting the project to be undertaken.
- Saving time and money from unexpected delays, costs and liabilities.
- Maintaining compliance with the law, thus reducing the risk of any fines or possible criminal convictions against yourself or company.
With over 3000 asbestos products, trades/contractors are a high risk for disturbing asbestos during their day to day work. For further information, see our Asbestos in Building page.
There are no safe types of asbestos, nor any safe levels of asbestos exposure. At present over 4000 people are dying each year from asbestos related diseases. A large percentage of these deaths are of maintenance workers, tradespersons and contractors. For further information, see our Asbestos Health Risks page.
