Industry representatives gathered at the UK’s largest dedicated asbestos safety management conference recently to hear about changes to legislation and discover new solutions to effectively manage asbestos in the workplace.

“Excellent day, great presentations, looking forward to the next one.”

– Network Rail

 

Asbestos the Truth 2017 was hosted by Dr Patrick Morton, CEO of Lucion Services, and brought together businesses and professionals from across the entire spectrum of asbestos related industries and job roles.

During the morning session of the conference, over 200 delegates from the health and safety, estates, facilities and construction sectors had the opportunity to come together to discuss
and hear about a range of experiences in dealing with contaminated land issues.

Detailed sector-specific case studies also provided first-hand reports on the lessons learned from some high profile construction schemes including Heathrow, local authority projects and heavy industry.

During the afternoon a series of keynote speakers then presented papers on different aspects of some of the main current issues to be addressed in maintaining compliance with asbestos-related safety legislation.

Bob Watt, the property specialist from Nottinghamshire County Council, looked at the approach taken by his local authority in assessing and managing asbestos presence in a wide range of building types.

“Very professional event, well balanced across all disciplines.”

- NHS Property Services

He was followed by David Lambert, senior SHE Manager of Kier Group, who looked at the ‘pitfalls, pinch-points and positives’ involved in the asbestos identification and management process, and Martin Stear, of Workplace Environment Solutions, who looked at recent developments in asbestos testing and air sampling.

The event was then brought to a close by a high-level panel discussion that focused on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and particularly on its role in providing greater reassurance air monitoring in schools.

Facilitated by Dr Patrick Morton, the panel discussion heard Mark Ede of Durham County Council, Adrian West of Wrexham County Borough Council, Colette Willoughby of BOHS and former HSE Principal Inspector Martin Stear took to the stage to share their unique insights and views on this topical subject.

In particular, the audience heard how, at a time of increasing pressure on education resources, SEM has the ability to enable local authorities and schools to properly allocate budgets for the treatment and removal of the most dangerous ACMs in schools.

With a rising number of cases relating to mesothelioma claims, the audience heard how high powered SEM technology can provide much greater levels of clarity and detail in analysing asbestos air and fibre samples than is provided by standard techniques.

Whilst it was acknowledged that more clarification and education on SEM would be beneficial, the role of reassurance air monitoring utilising SEM in enabling better risk management practices to be introduced was widely accepted as a positive move.

In considering these high profile issues, the eighth Asbestos The Truth Conference maintained its reputation for lively and informed debate – and for providing the most comprehensive showcase of seminars and workshops the asbestos industry has to offer. Planning for next year’s event will start soon!

“An excellent, essential event.“

- University of Wolverhampton”