What to do when you find asbestos in your building

Selfridges, the London department store, closed its window display during October after asbestos was found.

It was discovered in the five main windows at the front of its Oxford Street shop. Selfridges said it had dealt safely with the asbestos and there was no risk to public health.

A Selfridges spokeswoman said asbestos panelling had been found during a survey of the building. She said: "It was found at the top of the window frames of five out of the 26 windows. They were sealed immediately and the Health and Safety Executive was informed. Everything was done according to HSE guidelines, with approved contractors and so on."

"The windows were sealed up straight away. The removal has been completed and now the next stage is obviously to rebuild the window frames. "It's an old building and we always check for asbestos whenever we do a refurbishment. On the occasions that it's found, it is dealt with absolutely in line with HSE requirements."

AN HSE spokeswoman said: "It is in over 500,000 buildings in the UK. There is asbestos in Buckingham Palace, in the Houses of Parliament, everywhere. The thing to know about asbestos is if it is in situ and it is undisturbed, it is absolutely fine. It only becomes a problem when it is drilled into, for instance. That releases the fibres and when you breathe that in, that's when it becomes dangerous."

So what can we learn from this example?

• Survey your building to find out if you have any problems
• If you locate anything, isolate the area and follow HSE guidelines
• Use an approved contractor to deal with the issue
• Don't cut corners or ignore the problem as this will increase the risk to you, your staff and the general public

Contact us now to speak to an HSE approved contractor.

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