Asbestos Awareness Course: for UK Electricians

Asbestos stopped being put into buildings in Great Britain by the end of 1999, so any building built or refurbished before 2000 may contain it. Breathing in asbestos fibres can cause mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. HSE says these diseases can take 15 to 60 years to develop, and smoking makes the risk of lung cancer much greater. The fibres cannot be seen, and feeling fine after a job tells you nothing either way.

Electricians are on the HSE list of trades likely to disturb asbestos. Your daily work involves drilling into walls, chasing channels for cables, cutting holes in ceilings for downlights, opening up floor voids, and working at height in plant rooms, risers, and ceiling spaces. Every one of these activities can disturb asbestos-containing materials if they are present. In an older building, asbestos may be in the board behind the fuse box, in the ceiling tiles, around the pipework, or in the floor tiles beneath your feet.

The BS 7671 wiring regulations deal with electrical safety, but your physical safety on site depends equally on understanding the non-electrical hazards you face. Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 requires adequate information, instruction and training for anyone who is, or may be, exposed to asbestos. Awareness training helps you avoid disturbing asbestos. It does not prepare you, or permit you, to work on it.

The law lists six types of asbestos. Three were commonly used in buildings, and each has an everyday colour name. The colour names do not help you identify anything on site.

HSE warns that you cannot tell what you have found from its colour, because the materials asbestos is mixed with change how it looks. Unless a proper assessment shows otherwise, regulation 5 of CAR 2012 says to presume asbestos is present and that it is not chrysotile alone, so the controls match the most hazardous types. Only analysis of a sample by an accredited laboratory can confirm what a material is.

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Where asbestos hides on electrical jobs

The Elec-Mate asbestos awareness course has a full lesson on where asbestos is found around electrical work, drawn from HSE's Asbestos essentials sheets and survey guide HSG264.

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Asbestos went into a great many building products. HSE's Asbestos essentials drawing of a typical house marks asbestos insulating board behind the fuse box and around storage heaters and boilers, AIB ceiling tiles, partitions and bath panels, textured coatings, vinyl floor tiles, and asbestos cement panels and soffits. HSE notes that the drawings do not show every location, so treat them as places to look.

Textured decorative coatings (trade names such as Artex) on walls and ceilings may contain asbestos: asbestos in these coatings was not prohibited until 1988. Drilling or sanding an old textured coating could release fibres. Electricians fitting ceiling roses, downlights, or surface-mounted accessories during domestic electrical work must be aware of this risk. HSE guidance treats drilling a textured coating to fit fixtures as normally non-licensed work, which still needs someone trained for non-licensed work and the right controls.

Insulating board (AIB) turns up behind fuse boxes, around heaters, in ceiling tiles and partitions, and in fire doors. HSE task sheet a33 states that the fuse assemblies in old-style fuse boxes contain asbestos, and older switchgear can have asbestos flash guards or arc shields. Before you fix to, drill or lift a board in an older switchroom or behind a fuse box, find out what it is. Short-duration drilling of AIB needs someone trained for non-licensed work following HSE's task sheet, and AIB work that is not short duration is licensed work.

Floor tiles and adhesive can contain asbestos too. Vinyl floor tiles are on HSE's list, flooring was sometimes stuck down with asbestos-containing adhesive, and old floor tiles can hide under carpet. Electricians routing cables beneath floors should check for asbestos floor tiles before lifting or drilling.

Pipe lagging and thermal insulation around heating pipework, boilers, and hot water cylinders may contain asbestos. Electricians installing fire alarm systems or working near heating systems in plant rooms, boiler houses, and ceiling voids should be vigilant. Work that would disturb pipe lagging, loose fill or sprayed coatings is usually licensed work, so it goes to a licensed contractor.

The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR 2012) apply in Great Britain. They place duties on employers, on the self-employed (who are treated as both employer and employee), and on those responsible for maintaining non-domestic premises.

Regulation 4: the duty to manage applies to non-domestic premises and the common parts of blocks of flats. The dutyholder, whoever has the obligation to maintain or repair the premises, must find out whether asbestos is present or likely to be, keep an up-to-date record of its location and condition (often called the asbestos register), assess the risk, prepare and act on a plan to manage it, and give the information to anyone liable to disturb it. Before starting any work in a non-domestic building, ask to see the asbestos register. Private houses are not covered by the duty to manage, but regulation 5 still means that before work starts, someone finds out whether asbestos is present or presumes that it is.

Regulation 10: training requires employers to give adequate information, instruction and training to anyone who is, or may be, exposed to asbestos, and to those who supervise them. The Approved Code of Practice sets out three levels: asbestos awareness, training for non-licensable work, and training for licensable work. If your work will knowingly disturb asbestos, such as drilling a few holes in AIB or laying cables where there are undamaged asbestos materials, you need training for non-licensed work as well as awareness.

Regulation 11: preventing or reducing exposure requires exposure to be prevented or, where that is not reasonably practicable, reduced to the lowest level reasonably practicable. The control limit is 0.1 fibres per cubic centimetre of air averaged over 4 hours, and it is not a safe level. Work where the risk assessment cannot clearly show the control limit will not be exceeded is licensable work, which only an employer holding an HSE licence may do.

HSE can enforce CAR 2012 with improvement notices, prohibition notices and prosecution. Recording your asbestos study in your CPD portfolio keeps a note of what you covered, but a course on its own does not make anyone competent, and no certificate is required by law.

Every electrician must know exactly what to do if they find material that could be asbestos part-way through a job. HSE's Asbestos essentials sheet em1 sets out the core steps, and they start the same way every time.

Awareness training does not permit you to work on asbestos. Non-licensed work needs workers trained for it, following HSE's task sheets, and licensable work needs an employer holding an HSE licence. Your job is to recognise the risk, stop, and report it. If you are carrying out solar PV installations on older roofs, asbestos checks are particularly critical before disturbing any roof materials.

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Record your asbestos awareness study as CPD

This Elec-Mate course is for learning and revision and does not award a certificate or card. You can record the time you spend on it in your CPD log.

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