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I work in the ground floor of a two story building that was previously condemned for asbestos.
We were moved in November at which point I emailed my manager raising concerns that the building had been previously condemned due to asbestos and could they confirm it is now safe.
A few weeks later I got a verbal feedback of Estates have confirmed there have been surveys and there is no asbestos and nothing to worry about.
Come January, the floor above has major renovations started. Lots of drilling, banging , bits of debris literally coming through our ceiling. Few weeks later a water leak in the ceiling in a corridor.
Last week the builders have now apparently found asbestos and the building is now closed for at least a month to remove asbestos.
So this leaves me with no faith in the organisation. Do I just have to wait 20yrs until I have asbestosis and die before I can tell them they got it wrong ?
How can I insure they are doing things right, I assume there is absolutely zero chance of telling if colleagues or I have been exposed ?
Ta
There should be a formal report from the original survey. Some asbestos can be deemed ok to leave in situ if undisturbed, some also may not be seen just from a visual. There should also be a clean air certificate once the current work is finished - this before the public/employees enter the building.
Our buildings at work have many areas of asbestos, but we assess, remove if required, and if not required it goes on the Asbestos register and is used as part of the permit to work system when work is required on the fabric of the building.
There won't be many buildings around that don't have asbestos in there somewhere.
you're extremely unlikely to have got cancer from that level of asbestos exposure. Its pretty similar to smoking - trying a cigarette a couple of times as a teenager has a pretty much zero chance of giving you cancer, smoking 20 a day for life gives a high chance. The workers who get cancer from asbestos are generally those who work with it day-in-day-out - or trades who come across it on a weekly basis. Even if the stuff coming out of the ceiling was asbestos dust (unlikely) and you breathed it right in (unlikely), its very unlikely to have had any impact.
When surveying a building its impossible to test all the materials - its often been boarded over/sprayed over pipes which are hidden in cavities etc. Building work can reveal stuff that was never picked up in a survey
As TJ would say, this is why you should be a member of a union....
(But I'll echo what 5lab has just said)
As above, its only usually a problem if its disturbed. Anything built <1999 is likely to contain some asbestos (the really nasty brown and blue asbestos was banned in 1985 but white wasnt banned till much later).
Assuming your building isnt run by cowboys they should have a register of known asbestos in the building and that will be used whenever any work is done so that soneone doesnt just go in and knock a wall down to find a load of asbestos. Presumably if works had to be stopped because asbestos was found then its 'new' asbestos that wasn't known about.
Buildings arent condemned (in the sense youre implying that they should not be ever used again) for having asbestos, it was used almost everywhere. Although it might have made someones plans to develop it into something unviable. You would have to (carefully) knock down everything built between about 4000bc and 1999!
We've been taught the opposite of what 5lab says, that single exposure is enough to create a health risk. To the point that there is a reporting process where we can report if inadvertently exposed to asbestos.
If there is debris coming through the ceiling, I would bag up a sample and send it off yourself for testing, only costs a few quid for your own peace of mind.
I think I've been exposed, removed some suspended ceiling tiles that had quite a unique pattern (9 embossed squares on each panel) to run a cable and they were in poor condition and breaking up. Literally the next week we watched a training video and the same tiles were in the video...
I watched a documentary a while back and they said even a once off exposure could most certainly cause you issues later on in life?
Hardly definitive proof but that's what was said...
https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/faq.htm
"How do I report my employer if they are not implementing appropriate controls?
Firstly you should check which enforcing authority you need to contact. If the enforcing authority is HSE you can report your concern using our online form or by calling our Concerns team: 0300 003 1647 during office hours 8.30am - 5.00pm Monday - Friday, Thursday 10.00am to 5.00pm."
https://webcommunities.hse.gov.uk/connect.ti/concernsform/answerQuestionnaire?qid=594147
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/blowing-whistle-workplace-wrongdoing
As has been stated above, by law there should be an Asbestos Register for the building - ask to see it. If there is asbestos present there should be a management plan too.
We find lots of buildings only hold a partial report or not at all. We often delay work until an asbestos survey has been done but you still have to take care. Often you'll be handed a thick survey pack but if you take the trouble to flick through and find the room you are meant to be working in, you'll find the whole report is specific to the common areas such as reception and corridors and the scope of the survey did not cover large parts of the building!
Yeah I think a single exposure can do it, it's not cumulative exposure like smoking. This was the issue a few years ago that let insurance companies wiggle out of paying up if someone had been exposed to asbestos in several jobs, it couldn't be proved which exposure caused the issue.
I was under the impression that a single exposure was sufficient to cause (serious) problems later in life, but that's not what the NHS says. They talk about chronic exposure.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/asbestosis/
Assuming your building isnt run by cowboys they should have a register of known asbestos in the building
That gave me a proper lol given where (IIRC) FunkyDunc works. Wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them 😉