• Peter Bateman
    272
    To acknowledge Asbestos Awareness Week, here is a story summarising the NZDAA's recently released major report surveying the asbestos landscape and making recommendations. The story appeared in this week's edition of our Safeguard Update newsletter.
    Attachment
    The state of asbestos (85K)
  • Stuart Keer-Keer
    49
    We often find that trades people are of the perception if they are doing renovations all they have to do is to take samples of things they think contain asbestos. Asbestos surveys, asbestos management plans...yeah right. They think that if they incur the cost of doing this it puts them at a disadvantage with their competitors that don't do it.
  • Te Roopu Marutau
    9
    Kia ora Whanau,
    I currently work in the Asbestos industry as a Health and Safety Manager, the business I work for is a family owned SME employing around 15 staff. Having a dedicated HS role is not common and prior to my starting relied on the Boss's interpretation of the ACoP. I can say we're in a good position now with ISO45001 and systems that exceed requirements.
    Agree we need an Industry forum to share learnings, strategy and implement best practice, I would be happy to get involved and it might inspire the regulator to step to the plate. Poor practice I see from trades, other removalists and especially DIYers is staggering... killing themselves and they don't even care.
    Wayne Kohi
  • MattD2
    339
    Yet New Zealand remains content to try to manage this huge quantity of asbestos in situ, lacking the ambition to seek to remove it from the built environmentThe State of Asbestos - Safeguard Article
    This goes hand-in-hand with @Stuart Keer-Keer's comment below
    They think that if they incur the cost of doing this it puts them at a disadvantage with their competitors that don't do it.Stuart Keer-Keer
    Can we really blame them though, given those that propose to do the "right thing" will be priced out of the market by those that are offering the quick-fix (or actually the cheaper fix) - since both are technically legal - especially in residential buildings and renovations.
    The requirements to do it the right way, both for removal but also just managing the risks in asbestos related work, are often seen as costly and a delay to the actual work, so isn't it not unexpected that there will be some that will fill the niche in the market to provide "more affordable" services (just look at some of the recent asbestos prosecutions over the last few years to see this).
    Most of the options in the report seem to be focused on more awareness and training (including strengthening the licensing and surveying aspects) - but they won't really do anything to actually encourage the removal of (high-risk) asbestos as the preferred option, e.g. from residential buildings and other areas where the presence/risks will be less known to the owner/occupiers/operators. And to be honest the only way to encourage this (without unintendingly delaying needed maintenance work if you just outright legislate asbestos has to be removed during renovations/maintenance) is for the government to subsidise (most likely fully) the costs of removing asbestos.
  • Stuart Keer-Keer
    49
    Can we really blame them though, given those that propose to do the "right thing" they will be priced out of the market by those that are offering the quick-fix (or actually the cheaper fix) - since both are technically legal - especially in the residential buildings and renovations.MattD2

    Absolutely agree. We cannot expect the trades in building to suddenly see the light and start doing the right thing. They need help. I twisted the arm of all the trades working on my house to attend and pay for an asbestos awareness course I run. They all said it was an epiphany for them. Both where it can be found and the health effects.

    One person on the course was a plumber that said when he drills into cement board he turns the other way and holds his breath. He was shown how to use shaving foam and a coffee cup to contain the hazard. So now he will follow that. Education can help, but will not solve the problem.
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