The H & S at Work (asbestos) regulations 2016 require the following of PCBU’s
As the main principle or PCBU the following may apply solely or jointly where there is a crossover of responsibilities.
The Health and Safety at Work (asbestos) regulations 2016 require the following of PCBU’s
1. Section 21 Duty to identify and remove asbestos before refurbishment of structure or plant
2. Section 9 Duty relating to exposure to airborne asbestos at workplace
3. Section 3 Duty to ensure asbestos is identified at workplace
4. Section 12 Duty to ensure presence and location of asbestos indicated.
5. Section 13 Duty to prepare an asbestos management plan.
6. Section 27 Duty to ensure asbestos removalists is licenced.
7. Section 36 Duty to inform certain persons about intended asbestos removal work
8. Section 38 Duty to limit access to removal area
9. Section 41 Clearance report
10. Section 42 Clearance certificates
11. Section 43 Air Monitoring for Class A removal works
12. Section 51 Duty to carry out Air monitoring
The following sections of Worksafes Technical Bulletin also applies to the PCBU
1. Section 4 Managing Asbestos Risk
2. Section21.5 Communicating air monitoring results
Note: These items are a synopsis of responsibilities and others may be required
The following may apply to any project
The Health and Safety at Work (asbestos) regulations 2016 require the following of PCBU’s of Asbestos removal contractor
1) Section 16 Duty to ensure health monitoring is provided
2) Section 17 Duty to train workers about asbestos
3) Section 18 Duty to limit use of equipment on asbestos or ACM
4) Section 28 Duty to nominate asbestos removal supervisor is present or readily available
5) Section 29 Duty to ensure is trained and receives appropriate instruction
6) Section 32 Duty to prepare an asbestos removal control plan
7) Section 34 Duty to notify WorkSafe of asbestos removal
8) Section 37 Signage and barriers for asbestos removal work
9) Section 39 Duty to limit access to asbestos removal area
10) Section 39 Duty to make decontamination facilities available
11) Section 40 Duties relating to waste
12) Section 44 Duties relating to respirable asbestos fibre levels exceeding trace level
13) Section 45 Action if respirable asbestos fibres are too high
14) Section 44 Duties relating to the removal of friable asbestos
The following sections of Worksafes Technical Bulletin also applies to the PCBU asbestos removal contractor
1) Section 5-7.12
2) Section 9-18.2
3) Section 18.4-18.7
4) Section 20.3-20.4.6
5) Section 21.5
Note: These items are a synopsis of responsibilities and others may be required
The following may apply to any project
The Health and Safety at Work (asbestos) regulations 2016 require the following of a PCBU being an Independent Asbestos Surveyor
1) Section 9 Duty relating to exposure to airborne asbestos at workplace
2) Section 10 Duty to analyse samples
3) Section12 Duty to ensure presence and location of asbestos indicated
4) Section 16 Duty to ensure appropriate health monitoring is provided
5) Section 17 Duty to train workers about asbestos
6) Section 20 Duty to determine the presence of asbestos or ACM
7) Section 41 Clearance inspections
8) Section 42 Clearance certificates
9) Section 43 Air monitoring for Class A
10) Section 44 Duties relating to respirable asbestos fibre levels exceeding trace level
11) Section 45 Action if respirable asbestos fibres are too high
12) Section 51 Duty to carry out air monitoring
13) Section 53 Requirement to hold an Asbestos Assessors licence
The following sections of Worksafes Technical Bulletin also applies to the PCBU asbestos surveyor
Section 18.3 Testing an Enclosure
Section 21 Air monitoring and sampling
Section 22 Clearance inspections
Note: These items are a synopsis of responsibilities and others may be required
For the purposes of these regulations the Airborne Contamination Standard for Asbestos is an average concentration over an eight-hour period of 0.1 respirable asbestos fibres per millilitre of air (part 1r4regs)
Friable asbestos means asbestos that under ordinary conditions can easily crumble. An employer should restrict access to friable asbestos materials and construction work processes involving friable asbestos material.
All friable asbestos ‘work’ must be undertaken by a person who holds a restricted work license.
The Health and Safety at Work regulations 2016 (HSWR), the Health and Safety at Work (asbestos) regulations and WorkSafe’s Technical Bulletin.
The Management and Removal of Asbestos provide guidance and the following definitions:
Restricted work means work in one or more of the following categories:
Work involving asbestos, if the asbestos concerned is friable and is or has been used in con-nection with thermal or acoustic insulation, or fire protection, in buildings, ships, structures, or vehicles;
Work involving asbestos, if the asbestos concerned is friable and is or has been used in con-nection with lagging around boilers ducts, furnaces, or pipes;
The demolition or maintenance of anything, including a building or part of a building, contain-ing friable asbestos;
The encapsulation of materials containing friable asbestos;
Dry sanding of floor coverings containing asbestos.
The use, on asbestos cement or other bonded product containing asbestos, of:
A power tool with any kind of cutting blade or abrasive device, except when it is used with dust control equipment; or
Any other equipment whose use may result in the release of asbestos dust, except when it is used with dust control equipment.
With regard to non-friable asbestos, the WorkSafe technical bulletin Management and removal of asbestos provide the following handling procedures and general precautions:
Handling of Bonded Asbestos
General Non-friable asbestos products have been compounded from asbestos mixed with cement or other hard bonding materials. This part recommends precautions to be observed when working with non-friable asbestos products.
These products include, but are not limited to:
Flat or corrugated, compressed asbestos-cement sheeting
Asbestos-cement pipes for water, drainage and flue gases
Roofing shingles
Floor or wall coverings
Asbestos gaskets
Pump and valve packing’s
Asbestos bonded into bituminous products.
So long as these products are maintained in good order and are not worked on with abrasive cutting or grinding tools they are not likely to present a health risk.
New fibre-cement products manufactured in New Zealand no longer contain asbestos.
The employer shall ensure that precautions are observed during structural alteration or demolition involving asbestos-cement materials and removal of floor and wall coverings containing asbestos.
General precautions to be observed for non-friable asbestos product. Work procedures must be designed to minimise the generation of dust.
Action should be taken to avoid the spread of asbestos fibre. In particular, the following principles should be adopted:
Abrasive cutting or sanding power tools should not be used on asbestos-containing products. These may gen-erate large amounts of dust containing asbestos.
Non-powered hand tools such as hand saws should be used.
Wetting down the material further reduces the release of asbestos fibre when cutting.
High pressure water jets/guns shall not be used because of the potential to spread asbestos waste over the surrounding environment.
Work with asbestos-containing products in well ventilated areas and, where possible, in the open air.
Good work hygiene principles shall be observed. This may entail the use of plastic drop sheets to col-lect offcuts and coarse dust or the use of appropriate vacuum cleaning equipment when necessary.
Suitable respiratory protection should be used when airborne asbestos fibre is likely to be present.
All off-cuts and collected dust should be disposed of as asbestos waste.
Coleman Consulting further recommends that if works are likely to disturb the ACM, then the ACM should be removed prior to works commencing.
A destructive asbestos and hazardous materials inspection may also be necessary prior to work commencing in those inaccessible areas detailed in this report.
ACMs are considered hazardous and must be disposed of in a Hazardous waste facility (Ministry for the environment, 2002).
Removal of ACM is to be undertaken in accordance with the requirements outlined above in the guidelines.
Airborne asbestos monitoring should be carried out during the removal of friable ACM and all sam-ples should be analysed by a laboratory accredited by International Accreditation New Zealand (IANZ) or the reciprocal Australian body, the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) for the estimation of airborne asbestos fibre. In some cases, airborne asbestos monitoring will be required for the removal of non-friable ACM. For example, airborne asbestos monitoring is recommended during non-friable asbestos removal works at sensitive sites such as schools and hospitals or at a premise alongside schools and hospitals.
At the completion of asbestos removal work, a clearance inspection should be conducted by a competent person or a suitably qualified asbestos surveyor.
In order to avoid any potential conflict of interest, it is recommended that airborne asbestos monitoring and clearance inspections be performed by person/s independent of the asbestos removal contractor.
All asbestos waste must be disposed of safely (double wrapped) at a suitably approved waste collection facility. All tipping dockets must be retained
Friable asbestos means asbestos that under ordinary conditions can easily crumble. An employer should restrict access to friable asbestos materials and construction work processes involving friable asbestos material.
All non-friable asbestos has the potential to become friable during demolition or removal.
The term ‘non- friable’ is a description of the condition of a material at any point in time, not a generic material description.
All friable asbestos ‘work’ must be undertaken by a person who holds a restricted work license category A or a certificate of competence is still allowable until April 2018. The following legislation and guidelines provide further information:
The Health and Safety at Work regulations 2016 (HSWR),
The Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) regulations 2016
WorkSafe’s Technical Bulletin. The Management and Removal of Asbestos