Don’t take any chances with asbestos

With over 2,500 schools in the country, you would think that we would have a good idea where you would find asbestos in these buildings.

Although many of the buildings have had management surveys conducted for the presence or presumed presence of asbestos, there are still many unanswered questions. Proper identification of asbestos and the condition of the material may still be unrecognised.

There is a big push by the MOE to increase the quality of information about where asbestos may be found in schools. However, it would be safe to say that all information may still take a few years to pull together.

What can you do to ensure the safety of your staff, maintenance people and of course the children?

Use the simple practice of “if you don’t know, then get it tested”. A simple test can go a long way to ensuring that the risk to exposure in minimised by following safe practises.

Organisations like the New Zealand Demolition and Asbestos Association are working with Work Safe New Zealand to increase the awareness programs for asbestos across the country.

It is the responsibility of the PCBU to have the full information for building that were built before the year 2000. Some of the common areas that we see asbestos in the school environment include: The exterior cement panels under the windows; the overhead soffits and entrances to rooms from the exterior.

It’s not unusual to have the larger roofs covered in corrugated asbestos sheets, better known as Super Six Roofs, and you can even find asbestos as part of the vinyl floors.

Additionally, there are over 700 boilers still at many of the sites around New Zealand, and if they are not in use, then there could be a good chance they will have to be removed in the coming years.

Remember, be safe and let the professionals take care of the potential risks.

By Robert Barton, general manager of ACM Removals.