Who needs asbestos awareness training?
Anyone whose work could disturb asbestos in a building: electricians, plumbers, joiners, heating engineers, general maintenance staff, surveyors, and the facilities managers who send them in. Refurbishment and demolition workers carry the highest risk, because they open up parts of a building nobody has touched in decades.
Is asbestos awareness training a legal requirement?
Yes. Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires employers to give adequate information, instruction and training to any employee who is liable to be exposed to asbestos, which includes workers who may disturb asbestos containing materials during ordinary maintenance work.
The HSE sets out three levels of asbestos training. Awareness is the first, and it is the one this course covers.
Which buildings are likely to contain asbestos?
Any building built or refurbished before the year 2000 may contain it. Common locations are ceiling tiles, asbestos insulating board, pipe and boiler lagging, textured coatings, cement roof sheets, floor tiles and old toilet cisterns.
That range is why asbestos turns up in pubs, schools and 1970s office blocks rather than only on industrial sites. Age of the building matters far more than what it is used for.
What should you do if you discover asbestos?
Stop work, leave the material alone, keep other people out of the area, and report it to your supervisor or whoever holds the asbestos register. Do not sweep, drill, sand or try to clean anything up.
Loose fibres in the air are the hazard. Material left undisturbed and in good condition is usually safest managed in place rather than removed.
Does asbestos awareness training let you work with asbestos?
No. This course teaches you to recognise asbestos and avoid disturbing it. Work that deliberately disturbs asbestos containing materials needs separate non-licensed or licensable training, and higher risk work needs a contractor holding an HSE licence.
What is the duty to manage asbestos?
Regulation 4 places a duty on whoever is responsible for maintenance of non-domestic premises to find out whether asbestos is present, record it, assess the risk, and share that information with anyone who might disturb it. In practice this is the asbestos register a contractor should be shown before starting.
The course takes 30 minutes and ends in a CPD accredited certificate. Maintenance teams often need more than one of these subjects, and the working at height, asbestos and lone working guide explains how they fit together.
