Construction union UCATT believes the Government is planning to renege on a commitment by the previous Labour administration to fund medical research into the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma.

The cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme could increase the risk of children, teachers and support staff being exposed to asbestos, TUC union officials have warned.

The burden of occupational cancer specifically on Great Britain has been determined for the first time.

The Northern Ireland Executive looks set to reinstate the right for people with pleural plaques to claim compensation.

The HSE has teamed up with a retail trade body to produce a ‘quick-reference factsheet’ on abestos for retailers. Its aim is to help those in the retail sector understand their legal responsibilities and ensure their workers, customers or any contractors are protected from exposure.

A building firm failed to warn its employees that asbestos was present during renovations at a school in Warwickshire.

A local authority and a building contractor left a family exposed to asbestos for three days during renovation works at a house in Lincoln.

A commercial property landlord allowed construction workers to be exposed to asbestos during the refurbishment of an industrial unit in Bristol.

A waste-management business has been fined £40,000 for continually poor handling of asbestos, which put its staff and the environment at risk of harm.

Two companies have been criticised for falling “woefully short” of the required safety standards by ordering renovation works to continue following the discovery of deadly brown asbestos fibres.

In January this year, the HSE published new guidance on asbestos surveying,1 which explicitly advocates the need to be able to demonstrate and ensure competency. Martin Gibson, Martin Stear and Jon Murthy explain how both surveyors and duty-holders can do so.

The five years since the duty to manage asbestos was introduced have seen an explosion in the number of asbestos-surveying service-providers – many of whom are nowhere near competent. Martin Stear, who will be presenting on this topic at the SHP Arena at Safety & Health Expo, discusses the problem.

Pleural plaques are caused by inhaling asbestos fibres but, unlike more malign conditions caused by exposure to the deadly substance, they are symptomless and do not cause disability. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of legal debate and development in the area of compensation for sufferers, so Mike Boyle reviews the legal reasoning that has led to the current position and argues that any reversal would be counter-productive.

Robert Owen CMIOSH was diagnosed with mesothelioma in September last year and sadly died six months later. He always believed that the professional advice he gave to organisations throughout his career saved many people from unnecessary pain and injury, and maybe even death. By writing this personal case study, it was his intention to continue to provide that advice by warning others of the dangers of asbestos.

Wayne Williams of DMV is just one of the experts lined up to speak at the Asbestos Seminar Theatre. If you want to make sure your asbestos survey is worth more than the paper it’s written on, listen up.

Almost half of homeowners who do DIY in their properties are unaware that asbestos was used as a building material in homes as recently as the 1990s.

Updated guidance is now available to help duty-holders minimise the risks of workers’ exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos removal company Rhodar has launched a new safety scheme aimed at raising industry standards within the UK asbestos abatement industry.

Free information materials on a range of health and safety-related subjects are now available from a variety of suppliers.

Question: Many older homes still have asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) present for the maintenance tradesman to be aware of and handle. What else should the tradesman be doing, before commencing work, and up to completion, in order to protect everyone affected, including the occupants?

The HSE has revised its manual for workers in the construction, maintenance, refurbishment and related trades, who may come into contact with asbestos-containing materials in their work. The document aims to help workers in these trades when they are working with asbestos-containing materials.

AcePSI Group health and safety consultancy was created through the merger of Asbestos Consultants to the Environment and PSI2000.

AcePSI Group describes itself as one of the UK’s leading health and safety consultants, having been created through the merger of Asbestos Consultants to the Environment and PSI2000, a provider of health and safety management software.

Asbestos trainer Natas has launched an interactive e-learning programme for asbestos awareness.

A commonly heard mantra is ‘a poor asbestos survey is worse than no asbestos survey’. This will ring true with organisations who have, in some cases, parted company with large sums of money, only to be given a false sense of reassurance. This confidence is shattered when it is revealed that the surveys are less than thorough.

Asbestos specialists DMW Environmental Safety Ltd have recently launched their Analytical Response Unit. The company says it can now send a mobile unit to any mainland-UK site and test bulk material samples on site, thus avoiding transportation and routine laboratory delays.