July 2, 2004—Companies must act upon the new asbestos ‘duty to manage’ legislation that came into force last month, warns risk management specialist Line International.
Line says it is still finding companies that are unaware of the regulations and who may be exposing employees and the public to asbestos.
New legislation came into force on 21st May this year. All UK businesses must take reasonable steps to identify materials that contain asbestos and create a plan setting out how the risks from the materials are being managed.
Line MD Brian Carpenter said: “We are concerned that many companies do not realise they even have asbestos materials on their premises. But every company in Britain is responsible for the asbestos material it may have on the premises and has a legal duty to manage the risk.”
Explaining the scale of the problem, Peter Corbett of the Health & Safety Executive said: “Asbestos was used extensively as a building material from the 1950s through to the mid-1980s. Although some of this material has been removed over the years, we estimate that over half a million non-domestic premises currently have some form of asbestos in them.”
—Elliott Chase
Reprinted with permission; copyright 2004 i-FM
