MADAM,

I have been reading this week’s Beacon and was quite concerned with the letter sent in by G Powell with regards to the heading Safety of Pupils ‘not considered’ (Beacon letters 19th September).

I am a Health and Safety manager and I have had quite a lot of dealings with asbestos in the past and I know what is required when it either needs to be removed or when it has to be managed.

Before all works started on the school, an Asbestos Survey (either a Management Survey or Refurbishment and Demolition (R&D) Survey) would have to have been conducted and the HSE informed/notified. 

Any works with asbestos falls in to one of these three categories: 1. Notifiable non-licensed work, 2. Non-licensed work and 3. All licensed work

For both licensable and non-licensable work you will still need to make sure that you comply with the general requirements in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) to prevent exposure to asbestos.

It is an offence to carry out licensable work with asbestos without a licence and you could be prosecuted.

All licensable work must be notified to the appropriate enforcing authority using the ASB5 form at least 14 days before the work starts.

The HSE are the enforcing authority if any works on the following are to proceed:

Factories and factory offices, civil engineering, construction and demolition sites, hospitals, research and development establishments, local government services and educational establishments, fairgrounds, radio, television and film broadcasting, sea going ships, docks, transport undertakings, domestic premises, quarries, farms (and associated activities), horticultural premises and forestries, mines/quarries and offshore installations, licensed nuclear sites.

An R&D Survey for this project would have to have been completed as there is a specific requirement in CAR 2012 (regulation 7) for all Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs) to be removed as far as reasonably practicable before major refurbishment or final demolition.

All asbestos would/should have been removed before demolition had started on the school, no LARC (Licensed Asbestos Removal Company) or demolition company could start demolition until this has been done. Demolishing a school of that size creates an enormous amount of dust particles and if asbestos was present, then the whole of Monmouth would have been breathing it in.

It takes between 15 and 60 years for asbestos to manifest in the body.

Rob Martin-Stuart

(Monmouth)