News

This week, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched its campaign ‘Asbestos: The hidden killer’, which is aimed at making trade professionals aware of asbestos and the damage it can cause to their health and lives.

Every week 20 tradesmen, including carpenters and joiners, die from asbestos-related diseases caused simply by breathing in asbestos fibres. Asbestos-related disease is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths, accounting for around 4000 deaths per year.

The Institute of Carpenters is one of the partner organisations working with HSE to raise awareness of the dangers and risks that asbestos still pose to all trade professionals, including carpenters and joiners. Director of the Institute of Carpenters, Duncan King, says “Asbestos continues to be a serious matter. More people die from asbestos-related disease each year than are killed on the roads, and every week six woodworking professionals die from asbestos-related disease. Asbestos can be present in any building built or refurbished before the year 2000; it’s not just something which was a problem for the last generation to deal with.”

The Institute of Carpenters hold high standards of craftsmanship and professionalism and Mr. King believes that information sharing plays an essential role in helping maintain those standards. “As part of our support for this vital new campaign we are drawing knowledge from our experienced members and sharing it, not just with individual and corporate members, but with anyone with an interest and concern about exposure.”

www.hse.gov.uk/hiddenkiller answers key questions, including where asbestos can be found, what it can do to you, how to handle it, and a ‘myth buster’ to test your current knowledge. www.instituteofcarpenters.com also hosts key information on asbestos as well as case studies and facts provided by IoC members.

The national campaign ‘Asbestos: The hidden killer’ was launched on 22nd October to raise awareness among trade professionals that the risk of asbestos is relevant to them and can damage their health. The campaign will run for 6 weeks with adverts featuring on radio, in newspapers and trade magazines and new information packs contain additional advice on training.

For information on the risks of asbestos to woodworking professionals, and membership information on the Institute of Carpenters, visit www.instituteofcarpenters.com or call 020 7256 2700.