any health and safety people on here?

[one litre wonder ;)]

Righto two separate incidents here that i want to run past a health and safety person

1 - i work for a mobile work force where we work in residential and business locations. I have undergone no real employer related health and safety training with regards to asbestos other than being told " yeah it can come in many forms like plaster, roofing and insulation's so be careful". I have since done non-compulsory additional extra-curricular training which didnt actually show you what it can look like but told you " if in doubt assume it is asbestos, dont carry out the work and inform a manager" i was in a house from 1960 and was surveying the house in order to make a risk assessment on how to carry out my work as best as possible and i checked out the loft space and found a lot of old sprayed on insulation. now i know as much as asbestos at some point was applied as insulation by spraying in place, so i assumed the worst and refused to go into the loft. i informed my supervisor who told me over the phone " it will be fine, just get on with it". not being happy with that responce, i called my manager who told me " it shouldnt be, it should be fine just get on with your work".

needless to say 2 people telling me to do it without a hint of ill come check it out first, and it not being them that would suffer the consequences i refused to do the work.

surely my boss should have backed me up with " if in doubt dont do it" ?

edit -

point 2 - also is it the employers responsibility to send mobile work forces home in severe weather or do the employees have to call it a day?. i know we are all responsible but my work seem to be passing the buck back to us so its our fault if we have an accident as they dont have the balls to take us off the road

Edited December 6, 2010 by one litre wonder ;)

[Mr ColinG]

Difficult one Craig.

I am not a H&S person but work in building maintenance.

If it was a commercial premises I would be asking to see an asbestos register. Not sure about residential.

You are certainly in the right, if in doubt dont, get it checked by a certified asbestos specialist who should take a sample and verify if it contains asbestos.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/managing/intro.htm

[treblet]

If you think it's asbestos you shouldn't be going anywhere near it to disturb it.

If your supervisor and manager aren't willing to do anything about it then you should be reporting the incident to your H&S officer at work as a nearmiss (You will have one, even if you've never heard of them or met them before and your bosses won't tell you who they are!)

At the end of the day you want to go home safe and know that anything you've done in your job will damage your health in later life.

If your employers take health and safety seriously there should be no penalty for stopping work if you think it isn't safe to carry on, regardless as to whether it is later deemed safe or not.

[JB1.0e]

I have alway understood that if there is a question over the safety of employees, then the employer should err on the side of caution. I asked our MD and he confirmed that if the employee raises an issue then the employer should carry out checks if only to ensure they are not liable to future claims!

We had alot of asbestos removed from one of our sites and the specialist told me that with the asbestos its generally fine in place but the danger arises when its disturbed.

[one litre wonder ;)]

yeah it would have been disturbed as i would have been drilling through it

[scotty_82]

Hold your ground , even with formal training they basically tell you to leave it , inform someone and get specialists in.

Id now request formal training on the spotting of asbestos so that if it does happen again you have a much stronger point to put across to them if they decide to tell you just to get on with it.

[treblet]

I'd have to agree with Scotty on that one.

Your supervisor and manager aren't there and can't see what you can, if you believe it to be dangerous then don't go anywhere near it.

The other way to look at it is you're working in someone else's property, would your bosses like to end up in court because the actions you carried out had an impact on a 3rd party?

[John West Bear]

Just out of interest do you work for British Gas? Had a very similar incident a few weeks ago.

[one litre wonder ;)]

Just out of interest do you work for British Gas? Had a very similar incident a few weeks ago.

a certain cable tv company....

[vpolo]

you need to have training to be able to move work with or have anything in general to with asbestos its very dangerous.

if your h&s rep from work doesnt so anything you should inform the hse under confidance

[CopeyCupra]

i did an asbestos awareness course last friday and they didnt show much of the diferent types out there. If your work involved you disturbing the asbestos (or suspected) you were right to refuse to do it,if you wanted to be on the safe side, either dampen the area where you want to work or get a disposable white suit and a ffp-3 mask, then your safe. Im a plumber, i encounter it nearly every day, and i think its safe to say in 30 years ill have methoselioma,i took a storage heater out yesterday and it just fell apart, white dust everywhere, they say one exposure can be enough but im optimistic thats an exaggeration but your right if you suspect its asbestos either take precationary measures and wear PPE or get the experts in or refuse to do it.

[one litre wonder ;)]

i think its safe to say in 30 years ill have methoselioma,

mate dont even joke, im just after watching my grandad spend 18months suffering from it, NOT nice in the slightest...

[treblet]

CopeyCupra, if you aren't trained to me moving/removing asbestos you shouldn't be touching it, regardless of how much PPE you're wearing.

Awareness is one thing, removal is another!

[Mr ColinG]

CopeyCupra, if you aren't trained to me moving/removing asbestos you shouldn't be touching it, regardless of how much PPE you're wearing.

Awareness is one thing, removal is another!

What he said...

[LeeBee]

I totally agree with what everyone else has said. I'm a stonemason and the dust from stone contains silica which when inhaled can give you silicosis a very similar condition to asbestosis. I have to wear a respirator everyday changing filters very often, we have dust extraction systems and waterwalls to reduce the dust. Anyway my point being we are provided with the ppe that's needed so when/if an employee gets silicosis my company have something to fall back on. You are right in not continuing work. And the bigwigs in my company would tell you to try and get on like yours have. But think of your health.