Plumbers and heating engineers often come across asbestos in their work. Official figures from 2008 show that there were 2249 deaths from mesothelioma, one of the most deadly types of lung cancer arising from exposure to asbestos. Takling into account other asbestos-related conditions, asbestos exposure is believed to have caused approximately 4000 deaths that year with numbers being predicted to rise until at least 2016.
“Plumbers and heating engineers are more likely than most to come across asbestos while they’re working. The figures are bad enough – what we don’t want is a new occurrence or risk of asbestos related illness, simply due to people not understanding what to do,” said Mr Wellman.
For commercial premises there is a duty on the manager of a building to keep records of the whereabouts of all asbestos and its condition. They must also have a viable plan of how to manage the risk and act on it.
The advice illustrates the dangers arising from the continued presence of asbestos in many of our buildings.
