The much anticipated guidance form the Asbestos Network Technical Working Group is due to be published shortly which includes clear guidance around the age old grey areas of DCU earthing, continuous operation when using a generator and the location of the gas bottle during operation amongst other things…

Graham Warren, ACAD Manager advised “This guidance looks set to clear up some long standing uncertainties for the Licensed community, and once approved ACAD will host this guidance alongside all your other essential reading in our Technical Reference Library. ACAD has already enhanced our in-depth site audit question set to include the key messages from this to provide direction to our growing membership but we’re not negatively marking these elements given the draft nature of the guidance”.

Interestingly, the guidance around earthing includes when it is not reasonably practicable to do so, as well as options to engineer out this hazard fully. There is also detailed guidance around effectively managing the risk from Carbon Monoxide (CO), rather than simply relying upon a potentially non-operational CO detector.

The gas bottle position when using the DCU has also been addressed, and seems to link in with what is termed best practice guidance to install 30-minute fire protection between the cylinder cupboard and the occupied area of the unit.  The extent of this is still very much a live discussion, so ACAD is not negatively marking questions around this until the exact requirements are fully understood by the full sector including manufacturers & hire companies.