Asbestos exposure – a UK and world-wide problem

Asbestos exposure is a major cause of death and serious ill health. Asbestos is made up of thin fibres. These can break down into much smaller and thinner fibres. The smallest fibres cannot be seen with the naked eye but they can be breathed in. Asbestos fibres are only dangerous if they are made airborne and breathed in, but all types of asbestos fibres are potentially fatal if breathed in. The fibres that are breathed in can become stuck in the lungs and damage them. This can cause scars that stop the lungs working properly (asbestosis), or it can cause cancer. The main types of cancer caused by asbestos are cancer of the lung and cancer of the lining of the lung (mesothelioma). Asbestos related diseases can take from 15 up to 60 years to develop and there is no cure for any of them.

In the UK, you are most likely to find it in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. Many thousands of tonnes of asbestos products were used in buildings. Much of it is still there and you cannot easily identify these products from their appearance. The most common uses of asbestos in buildings were:

• loose packing between floors and in partition walls
• sprayed (‘limpet’) fire insulation on structural beams and girders
• lagging materials, eg on pipework, boilers, calorifiers, heat exchangers, insulating jackets for cold water tanks, around ducts
• asbestos insulation board (AIB), eg ceiling tiles, partition walls, soffits, service duct covers, fire breaks, heater cupboards, door panels, lift shaft linings, fire surrounds
• asbestos cement (AC), eg roof sheeting, wall cladding, walls and ceilings, bath panels, boiler and incinerator flues, fire surrounds, gutters, rainwater pipes, water tanks;
• sundry other products, eg floor tiles, mastics, sealants, textured decorative coatings (such as artex), rope seals, gaskets (eg pipework), millboards, paper products, fire doors, cloth (eg fire blankets), bituminous products (roofing felt)

Asbestos exposure and asbestos use is not limited to the UK. In some countries, asbestos use (and hence exposure) is large scale and is growing.

Links to other blog articles about asbestos

• What is asbestos?
• Asbestos Prosecution
• Asbestos prosecution for failure to communicate
• Excellent asbestos awareness training
• asbestos training – online
• Asbestos – ignorance continues to be a problem
• What to do if you discover asbestos on site
• Annual training for contractors working with asbestos?
• County Council fined after Discovery of Asbestos in Primary School