Asbestos Regulations Affect Every Business in Region

New regulations concerning asbestos in the workplace are about to come into effect. Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002 will come into effect in May and could impact on every business in the country.

Under these regulations there will be an obligation to find any materials in non-domestic premises which could contain asbestos. That means every workplace must be surveyed, and records kept of any findings. The risk of exposure to materials must be properly assessed and an ongoing risk management plan must be put in place.

The new regulations have already meant an increase in work for the microscopy laboratory at Reading Scientific Services Ltd (RSSL), which has expertise in identifying asbestos fibres. Experts at RSSL also undertake small scale surveys of domestic and commercial premises, and work on behalf of several local authorities to assess asbestos risk in public buildings. Working with a civil engineering partner, RSSL also undertakes larger scale surveys of commercial, industrial, educational and health care premises.

Identifying asbestos fibres might seem far removed from the microscopy laboratory's more routine work of identifying foreign objects in food and pharmaceuticals. However, according to RSSL's Simon Deadman, the principles are much the same. "Asbestos fibres are just another kind of foreign body to us," he says. "The fibres are very small and impossible to identify by the naked eye. However, using a range of microscopy techniques, testing for the presence of asbestos is now routine, and RSSL has been UKAS accredited since 2000 for this test."