Asbestos Management made Easy

Asbestos Management Programme

Background
Asbestos was used widely in the construction industry.
The health hazards were finally recognised and legislation introduced to protect people from exposure to the inhalation of asbestos fibres.
Those in charge of non domestic buildings have a DUTY TO MANAGE the material.
This is often difficult to do without professional help

Overview of Asbestos Central Limited
ACL personnel have many years experience in the asbestos industry and have first hand experience of the difficulties some duty holders experience.
The company concluded that what most people needed was simple guidance, and the facility to obtain from a single source all the help they needed. This could range from individual components to a complete seamless Asbestos Management Programme delivered as a package.
ACL is NOT a software company, it is a professional asbestos management company that has developed its own software to comply with the regulations.

The benefits of ACL to Duty Holders
The facility to outsource as much or a little professional help as is required,
Confidence that the regulations are being complied with,
The ability to demonstrate to insurers, lenders and shareholders that their investments are protected from the consequences of failing to comply.
The facility to call upon professional help in crises.
A systemised approach to dealing with the legislation, and in many cases with controlling maintenance work in general.
The facility to allow viewing access of Asbestos Registers to selected individuals or organisations.

Range of Services
ACL provides a comprehensive range of asbestos services, including surveying, analysis, supervision of removal, preparation of asbestos registers, asbestos register software, asbestos management programmes and computer software programmes.
ACL works with partners to introduce the programme and so reduce claims, reduce costs, and reduce the incidence of asbestos related diseases.
We believe in the concept of sharing asbestos information, so that clients could for example permit the HSE to carry out ‘virtual inspection’ or allow local fire services to check on the location of asbestos if called to a fire.

Issues related to but not governed by the Control of Asbestos at Work (CAW) regulations

Domestic Dwellings
Although the CAW regulations do not apply to privately owned domestic properties, home owners share the same anxieties as tenants with regard to the presence of asbestos in their homes. ACL can help householders decide how best to handle Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs), and it can provide provides helplines for homeowners.

Workmen
The whole proposition of CAW regulations is to protect people in the workplace, this includes maintenance workers or contractors, who must be furnished with a permit to work and copy of the Asbestos Register relevant to the area where they are working.

When working on domestic properties however they have no such protection. Frequently they are ill informed about asbestos, and have no idea what to do if they come across suspect material. ACL can provide professional advice, including the location of UKAS accredited laboratories to analyse samples

Information Sharing
This can operate on a number of levels, ranging from straightforward administration and regulation on the one hand, to crisis management at the other extreme.

With appropriate permissions from clients, organisations such as HSE, could access a client’s intranet to carry out remote, desktop audits of companies, health or education authorities etc. Minor infringements could be notified to clients and appropriate remedial action put in place. All this could be achieved without an inspector leaving his office or a client having to accompany that inspector. Such procedures would not eradicate the need to carry out full scale inspections, but it would complement present activities, and by allowing a great number of desktop studies to be carried out, it would help to identify those organisations where resources need to be concentrated.

At the other end of the spectrum Fire Brigades are increasingly sensitive to the risk that their officers might be exposed to inhaling asbestos fibres in burning buildings. Again with appropriate permissions, (given in advance preferably), officers would be able to access the Asbestos Register to discover the location, and composition of any ACMs, and enjoy the additional benefit of being able to study a building’s outline plans. Additionally if asbestos fibres are likely to be released during a fire, an asbestos company can be on hand to contain contamination quickly and reduce possible insurance claims.

Somewhere in between these two extremes, responsible employers and trade unions could both have access to a company’s intranet site and share information germane to the health and wellbeing of employees.