The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched its 2024 campaign, ‘Asbestos: Your Duty’, with a focus on buildings used in daily life, including workplaces, schools and hospitals.
The campaign aims to enhance understanding of the legal duty to manage asbestos through digital platforms, especially for those with responsibilities for various buildings. This duty covers a wide range of structures, such as museums, schools, hospitals and places of worship, as well as workplaces like offices and factories. Businesses and organizations overseeing premises built before the year 2000, particularly those constructed between 1950 and 1980 when asbestos use peaked, are urged to conduct necessary checks and comprehend their legal responsibilities.
Proper containment of asbestos in these buildings ensures the safety of those visiting or working inside. However, the substance can pose a danger if disturbed or damaged. The HSE utilises its digital platforms by providing updated information, new templates (including an asbestos management plan template) and explanatory videos on its website to assist individuals uncertain about their legal duties.
Sarah Albon, HSE’s Chief Executive, said: “To keep people safe from the harms of asbestos, a culture of safely managing asbestos is needed in our building industry and among those responsible for buildings.
“Asbestos exposure in Great Britain is still the single greatest cause of work-related deaths due to exposures decades ago.
“Together, we must protect people in the workplace and reduce future work-related ill health.”
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