Effective Asbestos Awareness Training – A life saver?

Posted 4 years ago

The Health & Safety Executive puts the number of Asbestos-related deaths at over 5,000 per year in the UK alone. That’s an average of 13 people a day dying from conditions caused by previous exposure to asbestos.

To put that all into perspective, that’s more than the number of people who are killed on the road each year.

With that said, it’s clear to see that effective awareness training is an absolute must for those who may potentially encounter or disturb asbestos as part of their job. In fact, it’s a legal requirement.

However, effective, engaging Asbestos Awareness Training that teaches staff how to identify asbestos and what to do should it be disturbed, doesn’t have to cost the earth. Just ask us for a free trial of our IOSH and IATP approved course below and you can see just how simple sorting your training out with iHasco really is…

See our Asbestos Awareness Training

We’ve delivered over 190,000 training sessions to make individuals more aware of Asbestos, its dangers, and how to report it, accumulating almost 4,000 reviews in the process…

Clear, concise and easy to understand…

I found the training very useful in highlighting the dangers, recommended procedures and consequences of ignoring asbestos anywhere!

Bill Astley

Content of the iHasco Asbestos Awareness course is excellent as it provides good detail about what Asbestos would look like, where it is likely to be found and what to do if you discover suspect materials. The course is realistic as it describes what best to do if ACMs are disturbed, as you would expect that the first instance would often be a disturbance of materials that were not discovered in a prior survey.

Martin Holland

Who is more at risk of encountering Asbestos?

Throughout the 20th century, asbestos could be found in tens of thousands of products.

These products included insulation, drywall, flooring, roofing, paint, pipes, and bricks. This made workers on construction sites particularly vulnerable to exposure to asbestos.

It is also thought that around 90% of schools in England contain asbestos. It can often be found around pipes, boilers, and in wall & ceiling tiles. This gives reason to believe that teachers are also vulnerable to asbestos exposure.

What can happen if Asbestos is disturbed?

As long as asbestos is in good condition and isn’t disturbed, there is a much lower risk. However, if it is disturbed, it can become a danger to the health of those working around it, as asbestos fibres are released into the air and people may breathe them in.

If you accidentally disturb and release asbestos during your work, it must be dealt with quickly and appropriately.

If quick and appropriate action is not taken, it means anyone who comes into contact with the asbestos fibres is likely to be susceptible to asbestos-related diseases.

The history of Asbestos

In our Complete Guide to Asbestos, we discuss the earliest written record of asbestos, which was in Ancient Greece is 300BC. In fact, in Ancient Greece, wealthy Persians had an amazing party trick, where they would throw dirty tablecloths into a fire, and it would incinerate any food remaining on it, but the tablecloth would remain fully intact!

However, in the last couple of centuries, asbestos is used for more construction and industrial purposes.

A town called Asbestos?

Did you know that there is a town in Quebec, Canada called Asbestos? It has been described as the most dangerous town in Canada!

For almost 110 years, this town thrived on the dangerous mineral hidden in the rocks beneath it. Mining was so important to their economy that the town adopted its name from the mineral – Asbestos.

As home to the world’s largest asbestos mine until 2012, the town was changed forever when the poisonous nature of asbestos forced the mine to close its doors forever.

Why is our training the most effective training around?

Our Online Asbestos Awareness Course aims to provide those who are vulnerable to asbestos with a better understanding and awareness of Asbestos. This is done by breaking down the pivotal information surrounding the topic into easily-digestible bitesize chunks.

The course helps them work towards compliance with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 & CDM regulations 2015 and can be completed in just 35 minutes in over 31 languages.

You can claim a free, no-obligation trial to the course today!