The Installer Magazine - Issue 41
Knowledge is Safety: Are You Asbestos Aware?
2025-04-24 06:07:55
Everyone has the right to a safe workplace, free from health risks, and to return home safely each day. With modern legislation, we expect this to be guaranteed. However, many tradespeople are still exposed to asbestos – a substance that can cause serious illness, and, tragically, fatalities. Graham O’Mahony, UKATA Chair, shares insights into why asbestos training is essential for kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom installers…
For employed workers, it is an employer’s duty to ensure a safe working environment through thorough risk assessments and method statements. If you’re selfemployed and handle all aspects of your projects – from winning and organising jobs to carrying out and invoicing work –the responsibility for safe practices falls directly to you. While this is true for all trades, the nature of kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom installation work can make these installers particularly at risk.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral historically added to many building materials until it was fully banned in the UK in 1999. Despite this, a significant amount of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) still remains in buildings across the country, often in areas relevant to your work, including toilet cisterns, boxing around pipes, insulation, textured ceiling coatings, floor tiles, water tanks, sealants, older boiler units, and pipework lagging, among others.
Every year, around 5,000 asbestos-related deaths occur in the UK, a number exceeding deaths on the roads. Asbestos exposure poses the highest risk to tradespeople. An estimated 20 tradespeople – including installers, plumbers, and joiners – die each week from asbestos exposure, making it the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK.
Unlike many other hazards, asbestos exposure does not lead to immediate symptoms; rather, diseases caused by asbestos fibres often appear years, even decades, after exposure. A tendency to think ‘it won’t happen to me’ can lead to a false sense of security when handling ACMs, with the tragic consequences only becoming clear 15 to 60 years later.
Asbestos in ACMs poses no danger when in good condition and properly managed. In non-domestic buildings, asbestos is identified through surveys, which detail its condition and location, allowing for a management plan to ensure it remains undisturbed and poses no threat. In domestic properties, responsibility usually falls to employers or contractors to assess the property’s safety for work. In communal areas, management companies or local authorities are typically responsible for asbestos management.
With all these protections in place, it may seem that asbestos exposure should not be an issue for kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom installers. Unfortunately, these safeguards are sometimes overlooked or sidestepped to ‘get the job done’. This is why asbestos training is not only a legal requirement but also crucial for ensuring a safe project, regardless of size or timescale.
Every worker in an environment where ACMs may be present must, by law, receive asbestos awareness training from a qualified provider before beginning work.
This training provides essential information about asbestos: its history; the health risks it poses; the types of products that may contain it; and a basic understanding of the legislation and required precautions. Importantly, this level of training is only sufficient for identifying and avoiding asbestos – it does not permit any intentional work on asbestos materials.
Where work on ACMs is unavoidable within installation tasks, such as drilling into ACMs or removing toilet cisterns, additional training is required. Known as non-licensable work with asbestos training, this covers lower-risk activities and ensures that all involved operatives are prepared. High-risk asbestos work, however, must be handled by a licensed contractor, with the area made safe before any installation tasks proceed.
Additional training, such as asbestos management, may also be beneficial for those overseeing asbestos safety at work sites. Ensuring the appropriate level and standard of training is vital for both individuals and organisations.
UKATA members are fully qualified, professionally audited, and held to the highest standards, ensuring they deliver reliable asbestos training. UKATA is widely recognised as a leading authority on asbestos training within the industry.
We urge every tradesperson to ensure that they receive the correct level of training for their specific work. This commitment not only protects you at work but also minimises the risk of second-hand exposure to asbestos for those at home, as asbestos fibres can be unknowingly disturbed and transported.
UKATA offers a range of resources, both on our website and social media, to promote awareness and education about asbestos risks.
Graham O’Mahony has been Chair at UKATA (UK Asbestos Training Association) for six years, having been involved in the organisation’s board for over a decade. He has prior experience as a plumbing and heating engineer and subsequent roles in building surveying, working for a local authority before transitioning to the private sector as a training provider.
“Asbestos training is not only a legal requirement but also crucial for ensuring a safe project, regardless of size or timescale”
For more information or to find a UKATA-approved asbestos training provider near you, visit www.ukata.org.uk or call the UKATA team at 01246 824437
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