Asbestos#
Asbestos can be found in any building built or refurbished before the year 2000. Anyone who breathes in asbestos fibres could develop lung problems years later. The fibres might be near a source of loose asbestos, but they can also get transferred by contact on clothing and released elsewhere later on.
Most forms of asbestos are safe until they are disturbed or damaged, making the kinds of hands-off activities that HeatHack does low-risk. However, there is a particularly dangerous form of asbestos loose-fill insualtion that was sometimes used in old community buildings around boilers and pipework or as sound insulation between floors. It can be hard to tell from other forms of insulation. If you see anything that looks at all like these pictures, even if it is a different colour, do not enter the space until the property manager has confirmed it has been sampled by a professional and is not asbestos.
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require those with responsibilty for maintenance and repair of community buildings to assess and manage the risks from the presence of asbestos. That means the people who run the building should tell whether there is any asbestos present and whether that has any safety implications for your activities. However, many of them are untrained volunteers, so they might be unaware of their responsibilities. For this reason, we want you ask them about the risks. If they think there could be asbestos present and aren’t able to give you a sensible answer about how they are mitigating the risks, you should refuse to go into the affected areas, tell them why, and also tell us that this has happened.
Photos taken from the Health and Safety Executive website - see link below.