Page 1321 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 490

19 November 2015

Discovery of Asbestos

Did you know that 1,800 people a year die in the UK from asbestos related death and The World Health
Organisation estimate asbestos related deaths to be 107,000 per year worldwide?

It is estimated that 20 UK tradesman each week, including 8 joiners, 6 electricians and 4 plumbers die
as a direct result of contact with asbestos.

You may think "that won't happen to me – my company only works for the best Blue Chip clients!"

Well, our employees have identified asbestos in several shops, behind shop fascia boards and inside
canopy stanchions; fortunately, in all cases, the men who identified it were suitably trained and
identified the asbestos content prior to drilling, fixing into it or disturbing it and our clients had it
professionally removed.

Our most recent asbestos identification was behind a shop fascia on a filling station. The team involved
had checked the asbestos register before starting work and its presence wasn’t recorded; their training
and vigilance may have saved their lives; experts were called in and a positive ID for asbestos was
given.

Never be complacent – many buildings contain this deadly material that was once seen by builders as
having revolutionary properties. Now, contact with it is known to be extremely hazardous and breathing
in one single fibre can result in a slow and painful death some 40 years later.

Studies have linked more than a dozen different diseases to asbestos exposure, but the four main
recognised diseases are as follows:-

• Mesothelioma (a cancer of the lining of the lungs; it is always fatal and is almost exclusively
caused by exposure to asbestos)

• Asbestos-related lung cancer (which is almost always fatal)

• Asbestosis (a scarring of the lungs which is not always fatal but can be a very debilitating
disease, greatly affecting quality of life)

• Diffuse pleural thickening (a thickening of the membrane surrounding the lungs which can
restrict lung expansion leading to breathlessness.)