asbestos update – what changed in 2014?

Asbestos 2015: where are we now?

The stats

Approximately 4,500 people die in the UK every year from asbestos-related illnesses

Any building built up until 2000 could contain asbestos.

Symptoms can take 30-40 years to surface.

• When working with asbestos, always wear a proper mask (P3). Ordinary dust masks are not effective.• Avoid working with asbestos wherever possible. If you’re not sure wheth-er asbestos is present, don’t start work. Your boss or the customer should tell you whether or not asbestos is present.• Don’t work if the asbestos material present is a sprayed coating, board, or lagging on pipes and boilers. Only a licensed contractor should work on these. You can’t work with some kinds of asbestos as they’re too dangerous.• Where asbestos is present, you can only continue to work if you’ve had asbestos training and you’re using the right equipment.

• To minimise asbestos dust, use hand tools instead of power tools, and keep materials damp but not wet. Clean up as you go, using a special (class H) vacuum cleaner (not a brush). Double-bag asbestos waste and label the bags properly.

Health and safety Executive (HSE) GUIDANCE:

NEW CHANGES...

In March 2014, Lord Faulks of the Ministry of Justice said:

Other measures to support mesothelioma suf-ferers, including a £350m fund to compensate those who cannot trace the liable employer, are already being put in place by insurers and the Department for Work and Pensions through the Mesothelioma Act.

NEW CHANGES...

In January 2014, the government passed the Mesothelioma Act which created a new package of support – funded by insurance firms – to compensate over 800 eligible people in 2014 and 300 every year thereafter, until 2024. Vic-tims, (or their relatives where the sufferer has died) will receive substantially higher payments than the statutory schemes currently operated by the government. They will also get an addi-tional £7,000 towards legal expenses.

Figures from Cancer Research UK state that, in the UK, more than 9 out of 10 men and more than 8 out of 10 women with meso-thelioma have been in contact with asbestos.