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Asbestos campaigners launch asbestos awareness survey in conjunction with UKAS
British asbestos campaigners have today launched a national survey exploring general awareness and understanding of asbestos in buildings and the regulations designed to protect UK workers from being exposed to asbestos in their workplace.
The survey can be taken here:
The Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011
The survey has been developed in conjunction with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) the organisation that currently accredits over 100 asbestos inspection bodies to carry out asbestos surveys. Known as the Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011, the survey will be promoted across all industries via the UK’s leading trade associations and trade unions, membership organisations and industry institutions. Tradesmen, building occupiers, dutyholders, clients, FM’s, property managers of non-domestic buildings will be encouraged to take the survey.
According to the HSE, asbestos is responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths each year and is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Results are expected to give an insight into awareness of the Duty to Manage Asbestos and highlight areas for raising awareness of the risks of asbestos in the workplace.
The Survey has the backing of high profile asbestos campaigners across the UK. Annette Brooke MP and Chair of the Asbestos in Schools Group welcomed the survey:
“This survey is a welcome step in the right direction. It is so vital that we highlight the dangers surrounding asbestos and I hope that participation in this survey is as wide as possible. ”
John Richards, Managing Director of analytical and surveying firm, Thames Laboratories said:
“With recent public sector funding cuts and the Government’s review of Health and Safety, we are concerned that this important subject maybe overlooked. Currently in the UK, more people are dying from asbestos exposure than in road accidents and yet our approach to asbestos still ranges from apathy to paranoia.
Recent conflicting reports produced from ATAC and HSE, and the issues of low level asbestos exposure, have led to the development of this research project, aimed at establishing what is really happening”.
Jon Murthy, Marketing & Communications Manager at UKAS said:
“This is the first industry initiative of its kind in which UKAS has participated and we hope to see this repeated annually to measure what improvements are happening within the asbestos sector. UKAS will play its role by ensuring the questionnaire is circulated to as many individuals as possible, from all industry sectors, via Unions, Trade Associations, Industry Institutions and Membership Organisations”.
The survey results will be published in a report in the summer 2011 via the campaign website www.asbestosinspectionbodies.co.uk and should highlight the issues arising from the most comprehensive review of the subject to date.
Inside the global asbestos trade
(BBC News: 21st July 2010) Banned or restricted in more than 50 countries, white asbestos continues to be widely used in China, India, Russia and Brazil, and many developing countries. The BBC’s Steve Bradshaw and Jim Morris from the ICIJ report on an industry supported by a global network of lobby groups.
The Jeffrey asbestos mine in Quebec is an astonishing sight. “Big and beautiful,” says one of the regular flow of tourists and locals who peer into its depths from a public observation deck.
Asbestos production, consumption and export
Kites glide above the tiny azure pool far below.
Elsewhere in Quebec Province, Janice Tomkins, an amateur watercolourist, is painting birds for the first time. She does not know how many more she will paint because she has mesothelioma – a rare illness linked to asbestos.
Janice believes she is ill because of exposure decades ago to blue and brown asbestos – forms of the mineral now banned.
What is mined in Quebec is a different kind of asbestos – white asbestos or chrysotile – the only kind now used commercially worldwide. Countries like Russia, China, Brazil, and India – although not Canada – use it widely as a cheap and effective building material.
The president of the mine, Bernard Coulombe, told us their chrysotile is “sold exclusively to end-users having the same industrial hygiene practices as Canada,” and said the federal and provincial governments have proof this is the case.
But, despite still being mined in Quebec, white asbestos is now banned or restricted in some 52 countries, on the grounds that any form of asbestos can cause devastating illnesses like Janice’s.
Opposition
Many scientists fear the continued use of asbestos could significantly prolong a global epidemic of asbestos-related illnesses that began when blue and brown asbestos were legal. The WHO says white asbestos “is a known cause of human cancer,” including mesothelioma.
Dr Vincent Cogliano, of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer says: “My own personal view is that these risks are extremely high. They are as high as just about any known carcinogen that we have seen, except, perhaps, for tobacco smoke.
“Any exposure is going to prolong the asbestos epidemic – continued export and continued use of chrysotile will increase the incidence of lung cancer and mesothelioma for many decades to come, he said.”
Janice does not want the Quebec provincial government to approve a C$58m (US$56m, £37m) loan guarantee that would enable the Jeffrey Mine to boost exports to developing nations such as India. Read More
Competence is key: Ensure asbestos surveyors are qualified for the job
Asbestos surveys are only effective if competent surveyors are employed to do them…That is one of the key messages being promoted at roadshows to help explain new guidance devised for those responsible for managing the risks from asbestos. Read More