HSE

Any building built or refurbished before asbestos was banned as a building material at the end of 1999 could contain asbestos in many forms.

Some types of asbestos are too dangerous for you to work with and can only be dealt with by licensed contractors.

Normally, non-licensed work includes work on asbestos containing textured coatings, asbestos cement and certain work of short duration on asbestos insulating board.

Short duration means any one person doing this type of work for less than one hour, or more people doing the work for a total of less than two hours, in any one week.

Training is a legal requirement. If you plan to disturb asbestos you need job-specific non-licensed training as well as awareness training. Awareness training alone is not enough.

Job-specific training will give you the skills to safely carry out non-licensed tasks such as - painting undamaged asbestos insulation board, cleaning light fittings attached to asbestos insulating board and cleaning guttering on an asbestos cement roof.

Without taking proper precautions, disturbing asbestos could put dust containing invisible asbestos fibres into the air. So, if the asbestos-containing material is in good condition and is unlikely to be damaged during the normal use of the building, it's safer to leave it in place.

An ordinary dusk mask will not be effective protection as the asbestos fibres are so small.

Asbestos fibres are actually too small to see and the only way to tell for sure is for a piece of asbestos to be tested in a laboratory.

Our research shows that some people believe asbestos can be identified using their senses, which is not true:

"The taste mainly. And the smell, with asbestos it's very, like a dry sort of taste" Painter/decorater 36yrs old sole trader domestic work

"Well if you drilled it you would know. You would know the texture of it. It's a totally different texture to plywood" Carpenter/joiner 52 yrs old, sole trader, domestic work

People in charge of workplace buildings have a legal duty to provide you with up-to-date information on the location and condition of asbestos before you start work.

Information from a survey might be included in the information you are given.