A survey conducted for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has found that tradespeople could come in contact with fatal asbestos more than 100 times a year. The survey was conducted on 500 tradespeople working in Great Britain and carried out by Censuswide in September 2014.
The results also revealed some frightening myths circulating around tradespeople. 14% of people taking part in the survey believed that drinking a glass of water would help to protect them from asbestos, while 27% thought opening a window would help to stop exposure to the dangerous dust.
Only 30% of people taking part in the survey were able to recognise all the procedures for working safely with asbestos.
Asbestos is a huge killer amongst tradespeople and an average of twenty people die every week from diseases related to asbestos.
The HSE have launched a new campaign at TradePoint stores across Great Britain where asbestos safety kits are being distributed to tradespeople in an attempt to make working with asbestos safer.
HSE's Chief Inspector for Construction, Philip White commented: "Asbestos is still a very real danger and the survey findings suggest that the people who come into contact with it regularly often don’t know where it could be and worryingly don’t know how to deal with it correctly, which could put them in harm’s way. Our new campaign aims to help tradespeople understand some of the simple steps they can take to stay safe."
Editor's note:
As part of their campaign for making working with asbestos safer, the HSE are hosting a live chat on twitter to answer any questions on asbestos.
The session will start at 3pm on Thursday 16 October under the hashtag #askHSE.
The HSE is on Twitter as @H_S_E and you can follow us @cedrec_news for all information we add to Cedrec, including legislation, guidance and topical environmental and health and safety news.
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