Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 (CAWR2002) created a new legal duty to manage asbestos in non-domestic properties and came into force on the 21st May 2004.

CAWR 2002 was superseded by 'Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006' in November 2006 and Regulation 4 remains in place.

There are still many commercial, industrial and public buildings in the UK likely to contain asbestos in one form or another, unless this material is properly managed, building and maintenance workers may breathe in harmful fibres in the course of their day-to-day activities.

For more information, please visit the Health and Safety Executive's asbestos website: www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos.

The most important requirement is to produce an Asbestos Management Plan which would involve the production of an Asbestos Register to deal with any Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM).

The first step to fulfil these requirements is to perform an asbestos survey. There are three types of surveys as defined by the Health and Safety Executive:

Type 1 - Presumptive Survey In this type of survey no actual sampling is carried out, so there is no positive identification of ACMs. However, the purpose of the survey is to locate, as far as reasonably practicable, presumed ACMs and assess the extent of which they were used and their condition. In this case, you may find that you are bearing the cost for managing materials that do not contain asbestos, as you are presuming that any material, which can reasonably be expected to contain asbestos, does so, and treating it as such for future work. In this case you can only exclude materials if you are completely confident that they do not contain asbestos i.e. glass, metal or wood (although asbestos may be hidden by them). During this survey all areas should be inspected as far as reasonably practicable or else must be presumed to contain asbestos. The condition of all materials which are presumed to be asbestos must be assessed.

Type 2 - Sampling Survey

The procedures used for this type of survey are the same as for a type 1, however in this case representative samples of the ACMs are collected and analysed to confirm or refute the suspected presence of asbestos. Sampling may take place simultaneously with the survey or be carried out after the type 1 survey is complete. Condition of the ACMs in question must also be assessed.

Type 3 - Destructive Survey

This survey may involve destructive inspection to gain access to all areas of the building to locate and describe, as far as reasonably practicable, all ACMs in the building. A full sampling programme is undertaken to identify ACMs and the extent to which they are used (volume and surface area). This type of survey is designed to be used as a basis for tendering the removal of ACMs before demolition or major refurbishment so an assessment of the condition of ACMs present is not necessary.

Type 1, 2 & 3 surveys can be offered to suit customers' needs. If asbestos is found, an ongoing management programme would be recommended and implemented if required.

It is estimated that asbestos has been incorporated into 3000 products ranging from the obvious - insulation materials - to the most surprising - toilet cisterns. It takes an experienced and competent surveyor to identify this content and any potential risk.

Asbestrip Limited can also provide consultants for the following areas:

• Register Production - to produce Asbestos Registers from diverse existing sources and utilise these to produce these registers for clients with existing source documentation.
  
  
• Risk Assessments - utilising existing reports or surveys, provide advise on potential risks related to asbestos and non-asbestos hazards.
  
  
• Management Plans - provide advise on management plans for the removal, encapsulation and monitoring of Asbestos Containing Materials (ACMs). It is also possible to host these for clients and make recommendations on software solutions, eg. including web-based systems.
  
  
• Inspection Schedules - Suggest inspection schedules for ACM content found as a result of third party surveys.