Asbestos is a natural mineral that was built into homes, schools, hospitals, offices and factories for most of the twentieth century. It was cheap, strong and fire resistant, so it was used almost everywhere.

Today asbestos is still the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. Around 5,000 people die every year from illnesses caused by breathing in asbestos fibres.

Most of those people were exposed years ago while doing ordinary jobs, such as fitting, wiring, plumbing or repairing buildings. This course will help you recognise where asbestos may be hiding, and know what to do so that you never become one of them.

This is an asbestos awareness course. By the end of it, you will be able to:

• Explain what asbestos is, and why it is dangerous.
• Recognise the materials and places where asbestos is most likely to be found.
• Describe the main duties of employers, building owners and employees under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
• Understand the diseases asbestos causes, and how exposure is kept to a minimum.
• Know exactly what to do if you find suspect material, or disturb asbestos by accident.

Awareness training does not qualify you to work on asbestos. It teaches you how to avoid disturbing it.

Module 1 lays the foundations for the rest of the course. You will learn:

• What asbestos is, and the three main types.
• Why it was used so widely, and when it was banned.
• Where asbestos is found in buildings and in other products.
• When asbestos becomes dangerous.
• Which workers are most at risk.

Asbestos is the name for a group of natural minerals that form long, thin fibres. The word comes from the Greek for unquenchable, because the fibres do not burn.

The fibres are so small that you cannot see them with the naked eye. When asbestos material is damaged, drilled, cut or broken, millions of these fibres can be released into the air.

Once they are breathed in, asbestos fibres can lodge deep in the lungs and stay there for life. The body cannot break them down, and over many years they can cause scarring and cancer.

Three types of asbestos were commonly used in buildings:

• Chrysotile, known as white asbestos. This is the most common type, often found in cement sheets, floor tiles and textured coatings.
• Amosite, known as brown asbestos. It was used mainly in insulation board and pipe insulation.
• Crocidolite, known as blue asbestos. It was used in sprayed coatings and some insulation, and is considered the most dangerous.

Despite these names, you cannot identify asbestos by its colour. Paint, dirt and other materials hide it. The only way to be sure is to have a sample analysed by an accredited laboratory. All types of asbestos are dangerous.

For decades asbestos was seen as a wonder material. It was:

• Fire resistant and heat resistant.
• Strong and long lasting.
• A good insulator against heat, sound and electricity.
• Resistant to chemicals and rot.
• Cheap, and easy to mix into other products such as cement, plaster, paint and plastics.

These same qualities are why so much of it is still in place today. Asbestos materials rarely wear out on their own, so they stay hidden in buildings until somebody disturbs them.

The UK banned blue and brown asbestos in 1985, and banned white asbestos in 1999. Since then, no new asbestos products have been allowed into buildings.

The ban stopped new asbestos from being installed, but it did not remove what was already there. Thousands of tonnes of asbestos materials remain in buildings today.

As a rule, any building that was built or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain asbestos. That includes homes, schools, hospitals, offices, farm buildings and factories.

The materials most likely to release fibres are:

• Sprayed coatings, used for fire protection on steel beams, ceilings and inside ducts.
• Lagging, used to insulate pipes, boilers and tanks.
• Asbestos insulation board, used in ceiling tiles, partition walls, fire doors, soffits and around heaters.

These are called high-risk materials because they are soft or loosely bound. Even a light knock can release fibres. Work on them must only be done by specialist contractors.

Asbestos may be hidden where an ordinary visual inspection cannot reach. It can be concealed behind wall linings, inside service risers, above suspended ceilings, beneath floor coverings, within fire doors or around structural steel. A previous refurbishment may have covered an older material without removing it. The visible finish therefore tells you little about what lies behind it. When planning work that will open the building fabric, ask what survey was carried out and whether it covered the exact area and depth of the proposed work.

A routine management survey is designed around normal occupation and foreseeable maintenance; it may not inspect concealed materials destructively. If the planned work could expose hidden spaces, the person arranging it needs suitable intrusive survey information before work begins. Keep to the surveyed scope. If the actual construction differs from the records, stop and get the discrepancy resolved rather than treating the drawing as proof of absence.

Asbestos was also mixed into many firmer materials, including:

• Asbestos cement sheets for roofs and wall cladding, plus gutters, downpipes, flues and water tanks.
• Textured decorative coatings on walls and ceilings.
• Vinyl and thermoplastic floor tiles, and the black bitumen adhesive beneath them.
• Roofing felt, mastics, sealants and old toilet cisterns.
• Fire blankets, gaskets, rope seals and older brake and clutch linings.

In these products the fibres are more tightly bound, but they are still released if the material is drilled, cut, sanded, broken or worn down.

An asbestos check should include relevant older equipment, not only walls, ceilings and roofs. Some ovens, boilers, switchgear, electrical panels and industrial machinery used asbestos in heat-resistant panels, insulation or rope seals. Gaskets may also contain asbestos. A machine can be brought into a newer building and still contain an older component, so the building’s construction date alone cannot answer the question. Before dismantling or servicing equipment, look for maintenance records and manufacturer information, then ask a competent person to assess any remaining uncertainty.

Do not scrape a seal, cut a gasket or take a sample to satisfy curiosity. If asbestos cannot be ruled out, treat the component as suspect and pause the job until safe arrangements are agreed. Tell the next service team what has been found and where the information is kept. This prevents a later repair, disposal task or replacement from exposing someone who was never present during the first inspection.

Asbestos that is in good condition, sealed and left alone, is not a danger. The risk starts when it is damaged or disturbed and fibres get into the air.

That can happen during everyday work, such as:

• Drilling or screwing into walls, ceilings or boards.
• Lifting floor tiles or ceiling tiles.
• Removing old pipe insulation or boiler panels.
• Sanding, cutting or breaking materials during refurbishment or demolition.

Asbestos can also break down with age, water damage or knocks. Damaged material should never be disturbed further.

The people most at risk are those who work on the fabric of buildings, often without knowing asbestos is there. They include:

• Electricians, plumbers and heating engineers.
• Carpenters, joiners and shopfitters.
• Plasterers, painters and decorators.
• Roofers, demolition workers and general builders.
• Maintenance and caretaking staff.
• Alarm, data cable and telecoms installers, surveyors and engineers.

Many of these trades disturb small amounts of material every day. Over a working life, those small exposures add up.

Asbestos exposure is not limited to demolition crews or specialist removal teams. A short repair can disturb material when a worker drills a fixing, routes a cable, changes a light, replaces a door or opens a service chase. Caretakers and cleaners may encounter damaged surfaces while moving equipment or working above ceilings. Fire alarm, data and security installers may need to cross several rooms and make small penetrations at each location. The task can look routine while the material behind the finish is unknown.

Before accepting the job, find out what surfaces and components it will affect, not just the room name on the work order. Check that the asbestos information covers those exact points and that the person supervising understands the proposed method. A safe system also accounts for other people sharing the area and for adjacent work happening at the same time.

Asbestos does not only harm the person doing the work. Fibres can settle on clothing, hair, tools and vehicles, and travel wherever they go.

In the past, family members developed asbestos diseases simply from washing a worker’s overalls. People working nearby, and members of the public using a building, can also be exposed.

That is why asbestos must never be swept up, blown away or carried off site on your clothes. In Module 4 you will learn how to stop the spread if asbestos is disturbed.

Released asbestos fibres cannot be judged by sight, smell or irritation. A room may look clear while airborne dust is present, and a person may carry contamination on clothing or tools without noticing. The person who made the disturbance is therefore not the only one to consider. Colleagues working in an adjoining space, cleaners entering later, visitors and building users can be affected if the release is not contained.

Think about routes through the building: doors, corridors, lifts, shared welfare areas and vehicle interiors can all become part of the incident if people move through them. This is why an early stop and a clear warning matter. Do not ask someone to fetch a tool from the affected area or walk through it to tell others. Use a safe means of communication, keep people out and report the location to the responsible person.