Not just a formality

Being in touch with people who manage asbestos is an interesting thing - many managers I speak with seem to approach the problem of regulatory compliance as just that - compliance with regulations. But we need to look beyond the regulations - why are the rules there? To protect you and your health - and that should be the focus of managers.

Every week I speak to someone who tells me a story about some unwitting individual who inadvertently disturbed asbestos containing building materials, either by peeling off pipe insulation to get at a valve, or by breaking a hole in wall, etc. Sure there is a hardcopy asbestos management report onsite - but without governance and a sound system/process, people will continue to make these mistakes, putting themselves and others at serious risk.

Before any work is done on a site, there should be a simple process in place to access one single point of contact to check if there are ACBMs present BEFORE doing any work. This saves time, money, and potentially even lives. Having a centralized data source and a way of collecting new site data digitally makes doing this the right way a lot easier.