Builder smashing up asbestos garage roof

[Condi]

33q said:

http://www.prodemolition.co.uk/

It would seem I should have used the word 'Accredited' not 'Registered'......my humble apologies

Anyone can be 'accredited' by simply applying or joining an organisation. Sorry, not having a pop at you, but there is a massive industry pushing the scare stories about asbestos to ensure a 'specialist contractor' can charge 1k a day to remove a garage roof! It really ISNT that dangerous, certainly no more than any other DIY job which anyone can do at home with some sensible precautions.

[Little Lofty]

I agree what the builder has done is really stupid, there are laws and guildlines to deal with asbestos removal and disposal so you have to abide by them. I've just removed some roofing tiles and paid a small fortune to get them removed from site.
On the flip side of this and as already mentioned White Asbestos is still mined in many countries including Canada and is still widley used in counties around the world. Whilst it is universally agreed that blue asbestos is deadly, many experts still argue that white asbestos (chrysotile) is safe. I think some of that data comes from the Russains who as the largest producer of asbestos may be slightly biased. Sensible precautions should always be taken but I do think there can be a overreaction to asbestos in general.

[QuickQuack]

motco said:

All true, but white asbestos is fairly benign in comparison with blue is it not? I was a child of about seven when my parents had a double garage built of timber and sheet cement/asbestos. It was summer, warm and dry, and they cut the stuff with wood saws - dry. I was hanging around the job as kids do and as yet have not succumbed many years down the line. A friend of mine worked with blue asbestos for some years and is now, decades later, still well and aged 75. It appears to be something of a lottery.

White asbestos is only "benign" in comparison to blue in the same way as an ordinary poo is cleaner than dysenteric diarrhoea; they're still pretty damn dirty. Exposure and illness is only a partial lottery in that many will be affected but there are also many who are not. Think about it in the same way as one smoker making it to a ripe old age doesn't disprove the carcinogenic (and other similarly bad) effects of smoking. There are plenty who don't develop anything, but plenty more succumb to it. Add in the possible 50 year latency period and many people don't remember the exposure or recognise the signs which can be shared by other lung diseases. Mesothelioma and asbestosis are a spectacularly bad ways to die.

[QuickQuack]

I forgot to add something for those discussing the safety of asbestos cement. It really isn't safe when broken up. From the only proper study into looking at what happens:

"There is no evidence from this examination to support claims that all the chrysotile asbestos in asbestos cement is significantly altered so that fibres present or released should no longer be considered to be chrysotile.
Claims being made in Internet articles and in some sections of the newspaper industry are not supported by this investigation."

http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/hsl_pdf/2007/hsl071...

[Condi]

That proves nothing, and isnt what Ive said. The study investigated if the chemical composition was changed when in concrete - I never argued otherwise. What I said was the physical composition, ie the ability of the fibers to penetrate the lungs and cause damage is changed, which the study does actually agree with. The panels are 90% cement, with a low asbestos content to start with, and then the fibers are tied into the concrete which makes them bigger, heavier and less mobile in the environment. The study says that any 'free' fibers are still asbestos, which they obviously are, but there are very few of them compared with unbonded asbestos.

From a risk management point of view, for £15 Screwfix will sell you a dust mask, overalls, goggles and gloves which are more than adequate to enable you to do the job at home, and then the council will happily accept them at recycling sites. If it was something which really required many certificates, accreditation's and specialist tools then it would cost more than £15 for all the gear, and the council wouldnt want to touch them with a barge pole!

[Ilovejapcrap]

silvagod said:

silversurfer1 said:

I have not long finished an asbestos course, the cement board on roofs is very low risk and you can remove it yourself if you have had training and wear the correct PPE

You do not need licensed removal for it.

The risk to anyone health other then the idiots breaking it up in minimum it has a very low fibre release. It is however a stty un responsible thing to do and they should be reported to the HSE.

Even more annoying is i am just forking to 20k to have some professionally removed.

SS

You might have just finished 'a course', but I've been working in the Asbestos industry for over 15 years and I can tell you directly that it certainly has much more than 'very low fibre release' when you smash it to fk with a hammer.

To be fair he does say other than idiots breaking it up in his post