The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 came into force with effect from the 6th of April 2012 introducing a new category of "notifiable" non-licensed activity where work involves "friable" materials.
Some other changes include:
• From 6 April 2012, some non-licensed work needs to be notified to the relevant enforcing authority.
• From 6 April 2012, brief written records should be kept of non-licensed work, which has to be notified e.g. copy of the notification with a list of workers on the job, plus the level of likely exposure of those workers to asbestos. Air monitoring is not required on every job if an estimate of degree of exposure can be made based on experience of similar past tasks or published guidance.
• By April 2015, all workers/self employed doing notifiable non-licensed work with asbestos must be under health surveillance by a Doctor. Workers who are already under health surveillance for licensed work don’t have to have another medical examination for non-licensed work. BUT medicals for notifiable non-licensed work are not acceptable for those doing licensed work.
• Some modernisation of language and changes to reflect other legislation, e.g. the prohibition section has been removed, as the prohibition of supply and use of asbestos is now covered by REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulations 2006).
• In practice the changes are limited. They mean that some types of non-licensed work with asbestos now have additional requirements, i.e. notification of work, medical surveillance and record keeping. All other requirements remain unchanged.
For further information about the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 visit the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/regulations.htm
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