All he wanted was to earn more money for his family. To be able to provide a holiday abroad somewhere in the summer and be able to have extra money to do home improvements. He had heard that there was good money to be made in removing asbestos from old buildings. Yes he knew it was dangerous, but today in 2008 the health & safety equipment and training more than compensated for the risk involved. asbestos awareness course online
High measures have been put in place for the specific training to remove asbestos and the protective safety clothing was fool-proof. There was no way anyone could be in danger of contracting mesothelioma, asbestos related lung cancer with all this in place. Or that is what he thought...
Stephen, my husband, went against my wishes and pleas not to go into the asbestos industry. He was adamant that it was 100% safe and it would bring in good money.
He paid to have a medical at the local hospital. He then paid to go onto the week intensive asbestos training course. He then paid for the health & safety equipment/protective clothing. Altogether he forked out £1,000 in preparation to go into the asbestos industry.
The Shocking Truth
Within his first week of working for Company X, he was shocked and appalled at what he was seeing. You see, one of the main components when removing asbestos is that you spray the asbestos with a water-based chemical. This in turn softens the millions of asbestos molecules and thus will not be released into the air and consequently inhaled by the operative while wearing the protective mask.
However, this is what he learned on his H&S training, but this was not being put into practice. What he saw, with this particular company, was that in order to save time and money they were not spraying the asbestos. This meant that when snapping the asbestos into pieces, the millions of asbestos molecules were flying all around within the atmosphere. Yes they were all wearing their protective masks with clean air-flow, but the masks were overwhelmed by the millions of asbestos making them worthless.
The dry asbestos was being breathed in by the men, into their full-headed cover masks and being inhaled right down into their lungs.
Needless to say that Stephen started looking for another job and within a few weeks he was out of the asbestos industry before it was too late for him.
Now I am not saying that all asbestos operatives do not follow the H&S guidelines, but this company certainly didn't and I bet there are many more across the world who do the same. Just be aware of this one lapse of health & safety which could still lead you to contracting mesothelioma, asbestos related disease - even if you are wearing the full protective equipment.
Beware of one safety technique that is not being carried by some companies / operatives when removing asbestos. The lack of this one single technique is putting hundreds of men's lives in danger of contracting mesothelioma, asbestos related lung cancer disease.
What you are about to read will probably shock and upset you. I know this first hand as my husband briefly worked in the asbestos removal industry. What he saw socked him and he consequently quit working with asbestos because he wants to see his two young boys grow up.