August 2018
Featured in this insight: Construction
Survey reveals one in three construction workers fail to check asbestos registers: The dangers of asbestos exposure are now well understood, however, a survey by Opinium has revealed a worrying number of construction workers fail to check the asbestos register at sites they are due to start work at before jobs get underway.
Thirty-two percent of the 500 workers polled said they have never checked the register before starting a job, with half of these having no knowledge at all about asbestos registers.
In terms of what to do if they came across asbestos at a site they were working at, 18% said they would not be sure of what they should do.
The survey also revealed that almost 1 in 6 respondents (59 percent) were well versed in the dangers posed by asbestos and 15 percent revealed they had the message reiterated regularly during staff training sessions.
Some workers (23 percent) also shared that they believed they had been exposed to asbestos.
The survey was carried out as part of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health's (IOSH) No Time to Lose campaign.
Exposure to asbestos fibres can cause cancers including the deadliest form, mesothelioma, and claim the lives of an estimated 5,000 people in the UK each year.
Craig Foyle, the president of the IOSH said:
“We are calling on everyone, including employers, to do the right thing; to protect the people who work for them.”
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