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HSE ’Wake up call’ for Asbestos Removal Industry

→ March 6 2006 Health and Safety Executive (London)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has called its second special leadership summit to ask the asbestos removal industry to make further improvements in reducing ill-health caused by work with asbestos.

The invitation-only summit to many license holders in the London and South East area’s - at the West Ham stadium in London on Tuesday 21 February - follows an assessment of the industry’s recent performance, which considered whether adequate precautions were being taken to prevent ill health from work with asbestos. It revealed that although the industry collectively had made significant improvements in recent years, there is still room for further advances.

Work with asbestos is the single highest cause of occupationally related fatal diseases. It is estimated that nationally approximately 600 of those deaths each year arise from work with asbestos in the construction industry and allied trades.

Although standards have improved and the evidence available suggests that the number of deaths will begin to reduce from a predicted peak in 2011, the rate of reduction of incidence is not known. Therefore the aim of the summit is for individual organisations to determine the further steps that they can take to reduce exposure to asbestos and hence further reduce the incidence of disease.

Welcoming the event, Mike Williams, Asbestos Licensing Principal Inspector in HSE’s Field Operations Directorate, said: "We are determined to work with the industry, and our objective is to convince them that higher standards to protect health are achievable and needed. We will explore how individual license holders can make those necessary improvements and hence reduce the number of deaths from asbestos related diseases."

Terry Jago, Chief Executive of The Asbestos Removal Contractors Association (ARCA), also welcomed the event, saying: "The main aim of the Asbestos Liaison Group (ALG) has always been to improve standards within the asbestos removal industry. ARCA’s Site Audit Accreditation Scheme has also highlighted the need for greater management awareness in this respect. ARCA are therefore delighted that the HSE has taken this initiative."

The program for the event will include sessions on:

• management responsibility;
• organizational improvement;
• problems of complacency; and
• organizational / individual vulnerability.

In addition to these sessions there will be an opportunity for attendees to discuss specific issues with HSE staff and representatives of Trade Associations and Trades Unions.

This is the second event of its type for the industry and a further ten events will be run in other parts of the country.