MPs urge asbestos removal from workplaces

Asbestos should be completely removed from all public and commercial buildings within 40 years to put an end to the thousands of deaths that occur each year due to past workplace exposures, MPs have said.

Despite being banned from use in 1999, a report from the Work and Pensions Committee notes that asbestos is still the single greatest cause of work-related fatalaties and contributed to 5,000 deaths in 2019, including from related cancers such as mesothelioma.

Although the likelihood of working in an environment where there is a high risk of asbestos exposure has decreased over time, it is thought to still be present in around 300,000 non-domestic buildings.

Past measurement of fibres in lungs has shown that the lifetime risk from mesothelioma is substantially lower
for people born in the late 1960s. For people born in the late 1980s the risks appear lower, but the numbers sampled are small and patterns of exposure may be subject to wide variation over time and between people, the committee’s The Health and Safety Executive’s approach to asbestos management report suggests.

The drive towards net zero, which in many cases will involve a significant amount of renovation to improve heating systems and insulation, is likely to increase the number of people who are exposed to, or disturb asbestos fibres.

The report recommends that HSE and government develop a plan to remove the “highest risk” asbestos first, including in schools as recent HSE data shows elevated rates of mesothelioma deaths among women whose last occupation was in education.

The plan should involve improving the evidence base for safe asbestos removal and disposal and should take into account proposals for upgrading buildings to ensure net zero targets are met.

Work and Pensions Committee chair Stephen Timms said: “Asbestos is one of the great workplace tragedies of modern times and while the extreme exposures of the late twentieth century are now behind us, the risk from asbestos remains real.

“The drive towards retrofitting of buildings to meet net zero aspirations means the risk of asbestos exposure will only escalate in the coming decades. Falling back on regulations which devolve responsibility to individual building owners and maintenance managers will not be sufficient to protect people’s health.

“Setting a clear deadline of 40 years for the removal of asbestos from non-domestic buildings will help to focus minds. This is no time for laissez-faire. The government needs to fund the HSE properly to allow it to reverse the decline in enforcement activity seen in the decade before the pandemic and ensure that asbestos, and its removal, is managed safely and effectively.”

Other recommendations made in the report include:

• developing a framework for the measurement of current asbestos exposures in non-domestic buildings
• investigating opportunities to improve the occupational information recorded on death certificates
• HSE working with central and devolved governments to review and share evidence relating to routine environmental air monitoring of asbestos fibres
• HSE working with others in government to sponsor improvements in how information on asbestos in buildings
  is communicated and used, drawing on lessons from the use of digital technologies in building management and in the health response to the pandemic
• a sustained increase in inspection and enforcement activity targeting compliance with the Control of Asbestos Regulations
• ensuring the current review of the Control of Asbestos Regulations includes a thorough written assessment of moves towards the more stringent occupational asbestos exposure limits in Europe. In the European Union the single maximum limit value for airborne concentration of asbestos is 0.1 fibres per cm3 as an eight-hour average. In the UK it is 0.1 fibres per cm3 averaged over a four-hour period.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) welcomed the report’s recommendations, but said consideration must be given to better prevention methods while asbestos is still present in buildings.

Head of health and safety Ruth Wilkinson said: “Removing asbestos is something which is fraught with risks, so any decision to do so is something which cannot be taken lightly. Full consideration must be given to how the people removing it are protected and where the asbestos goes from there, including its packaging, transportation and final disposal – particularly when considering the large number of buildings this plan will relate to.

“So, we would expect to see that any such plans will include detailed information on how these risks will be managed to prevent significant exposure during this process.”

Wilkinson added that policy makers, government, regulators, employers and worker representatives should improve training for employees in how to deal with asbestos, develop clearer guidance around working with asbestos and raise awareness about the dangers of exposure.