Asbestos Awareness

Why asbestos is still the biggest killer on site

HSE puts exposure to asbestos as the greatest cause of work-related deaths in Great Britain. The figures it publishes:

• around 5,000 workers a year are killed by asbestos, more than the number of people killed on the road
• around 20 tradesmen die each week as a result of past exposure
• it can be present in any building built or refurbished before the year 2000, so it is not only a problem of the past

Left alone and in good condition the risk is low: the danger comes when material is disturbed and fibres are released into the air. You cannot see, smell or feel those fibres, so nothing warns you that you have been exposed, and the diseases take decades to develop and cannot be cured.

The four diseases HSE names

HSE adds a warning question writers love: people who smoke and are exposed to asbestos fibres are at a much greater risk of developing lung cancer.

The three tiers of asbestos work

Work with asbestos is split into three tiers by the risk it creates, and the tier decides who may do it and what has to be notified.

• Licensed work. Most higher-risk work: sprayed coatings (limpet asbestos), anything that may disturb pipe lagging, loose fill insulation, asbestos millboard, and work on asbestos insulating board the risk assessment shows is not short duration. Only an HSE-licensed contractor may do it, it must be notified on form ASB5 at least 14 days before work starts, and doing it without a licence is an offence.
• Notifiable non-licensed work (NNLW). Lower-risk work that still needs extra control, such as minor short duration removal of asbestos insulating board during a refurbishment, or removing substantially damaged asbestos cement. The employer must notify the enforcing authority before work starts, designate and mark the area, arrange medical examinations and keep registers of work.
• Non-licensed work. The lowest-risk work, such as careful removal of undamaged asbestos cement sheeting, drilling holes in asbestos insulating board, or painting board in good condition. No notification, but it must still comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations, be risk assessed and controlled, and be done by trained workers.

Two NNLW details that turn up in questions: the medical examination has to be repeated at least every three years for as long as the worker keeps doing NNLW, and the register of work has to be kept for 40 years. There is no minimum notice period for NNLW, unlike the 14 days for licensed work. And HSE's own tie-breaker when the tier is not obvious: if in doubt, assume the work is licensed and stop until you are told otherwise. That reasoning sits behind a lot of the demolition questions too, since refurbishment and demolition are among the activities HSE flags as highest risk.

The duty to manage asbestos

Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 puts a duty on the dutyholder of non-domestic premises, and HSE extends the guidance to the common parts of multi-occupancy domestic premises such as purpose-built flats. The dutyholder is whoever has a maintenance or repair obligation under a contract or tenancy, or failing that, whoever controls that part of the premises. They must:

• assess whether asbestos is or is liable to be present, taking account of building plans, the age of the premises and an inspection of the reasonably accessible parts, and record the conclusions
• prepare a written plan identifying the parts of the premises concerned and the measures for managing the risk
• monitor the material's condition, keep it maintained or safely removed, and review the plan without delay if it may no longer be valid
• provide information on the location and condition of the asbestos to every person liable to disturb it, and make it available to the emergency services

In HSE's practical guidance that becomes an asbestos register plus a management plan reviewed every 12 months or sooner, and one rule that matters most to you on the tools: presume materials contain asbestos unless there is strong evidence that they do not.

If you find it, or disturb it

HSE gives workers a short sequence for material they think may contain asbestos. Stop work. Speak to your employer, or the building owner, to find out whether there is asbestos in the building. Your employer should ask to see the asbestos register or survey and satisfy themselves it covers the job, and nothing restarts until that is done. You must also not start if you have not had training to work with or around asbestos. If asbestos is disturbed while you are working, stop immediately.

Things HSE says you must never do:

• use power tools without dust control measures such as shadow vacuuming or drill cowls for local extraction
• sweep dust and debris, which throws fibres back into the air. Use a Type H vacuum cleaner or wet rags
• reuse disposable overalls or respiratory protective equipment
• eat or drink in the work area

Where non-licensed work is planned and you are trained for it, the RPE has to fit: HSE requires a face fit test for the specific model and size of respirator, the same standard that applies to dust and fume protection generally. Waste must be double-bagged and disposed of properly by the employer.

Practise the asbestos questions

Asbestos sits inside the hazardous substances part of the Operatives paper, alongside lead, silica and the COSHH hazard symbols. Work through the COSHH and hazardous substances questions with explanations, sit a full free CSCS practice test, or start from the revision plan. Neighbouring topics in the same paper include RIDDOR reporting, fire extinguisher types and the rest of the practice question topics.

The death figures and the four diseases, the three levels of information, instruction and training, the three tiers of work, the notification rules and the duty to manage were verified against hse.gov.uk and legislation.gov.uk in August 2026. Pages read: hse.gov.uk/asbestos/dangerous.htm, /asbestos/workers.htm, /asbestos/training.htm, /asbestos/licensing/licensed-contractor.htm, /asbestos/licensing/notifiable-non-licensed-work.htm and /asbestos/duty/index.htm, plus regulation 4 of SI 2012/632. Ban dates and fibre colour names are not asserted here: HSE's own framing is any building built or refurbished before the year 2000.