A new scheme aimed at reducing asbestos-related incidents in the workplace has been launched by The Asbestos Aware Contractors Scheme (AACS) and is being promoted not just to contractors but to all organisations that employ either a direct workforce or contracted labour for building, modernisation or maintenance projects.
Courses are offered to both management and operatives to help them gain a better appreciation of what they’re dealing with, of the inherent dangers of working in an asbestos environment and of the consequences of poor working standards. The principle behind the scheme is that better knowledge equates to better on-site practice and better on-site practice leads to fewer incidents.
Head of the AACS scheme, Stewart Powell, comments: “The amount of accidental asbestos contamination occurring on-site in Britain is alarming.Either through ignorance or carelessness, tradesmen are putting drills through walls, ripping out cabling and dismantling ceilings where asbestos is present and unleashing serious consequences – exposure and contamination can have major health, legal and financial ramifications. By participating in the course, workers can learn respect for the substance itself, know how to find out if and where it is on site, know how to avoid it and know what to do if they should accidentally disturb it.
“If companies can gain AACS accreditation by putting all relevant staff through the course, they will not only be equipping themselves with the right knowledge to be safe and sure;but they will also be able to demonstrate to customers that they have taken positive steps to be an asbestos aware contractor – giving them a potential competitive edge. In addition, we will be actively promoting the accreditation to contracting organisations such as local authorities and facilities managers, who could conceivably specify it as a qualifying standard for approved suppliers.”
AACS is the brainchild of Aspect Contracts, one of the largest asbestos management companies in the UK. It devised the scheme after noting the high level of emergency call outs that were the direct result of avoidable contractor negligence.
