Highways Agency

• Traffic Incident Management Bulletin

April 2008

Approximately 3,000 people die each year from asbestos related diseases, 25% of those people once worked in construction. There is the potential that asbestos waste in transit or even asbestos containing materials in situ on the network could be released following an incident. This article highlights the risks and what can be done to mitigate them.

Regulations

Regulation 4 of The Control of Asbestos Regulations (CAR) 2006 places a specific legal duty on every person to identify materials containing asbestos in any premises they own, occupy, manage or for which they have a responsibility, to assess the risk of those materials and to ensure that a management system is in place that responds correctly and appropriately to the materials present.

The Health and Safety Executive have a specific asbestos page this can be found by following the link.

Where can asbestos be found?

Asbestos is a term used for a number of naturally occurring minerals, which have crystallised to form long thin fibres and fibre bundles. There are three main types – chrysolite, amosite and crocidolite – referred to as white, brown and blue asbestos respectively.

On the Highways Agency’s network it is most likely to be combined with other materials as asbestos containing materials (ACMs) for fireproofing, waterproofing, mastics, insulation, boards and asbestos cement ducts, pipe and sheets. ACMs can only pose a risk to health if the asbestos fibres become airborne and are then inhaled. If ACMs are in good condition and not disturbed a risk does not exist.

It is a reasonable assumption that if a highway asset was constructed or installed during the year 2000 or after ACMs should not be present. Prior to this there is a risk that asbestos could be present.

Much of the highway infrastructure is over 20 years old in terms of the original construction and therefore may contain ACMs. These materials are known to exist within the highway boundary in roads, drainage, highway structures, electrical installations and other associated buildings. Road tunnels are considered to pose the highest risk for highway works and are addressed accordingly in the asbestos management system.

Known areas where ACMs exist include the following but this list is not exhaustive:

In addition to the ACMs on the network there is also the risk of a vehicle carrying asbestos waste being involved in an incident. There is only a health risk if the materials being transported are released. Legally, the majority of asbestos wastes have to be contained in individual packages within a closed container. This could be waste bagged within a covered skip or enclosed in a vehicle.

Vehicles carrying asbestos waste may be marked as 'carrying dangerous goods' however only certain types of waste apply and only above threshold levels. The UN numbers to look out for are 2212 and 2590. However vehicles/skips transporting asbestos are often labelled with simple warning markings even when not legally required. The final clue would be the company the vehicle belongs to. It is a reasonable assumption that an asbestos removal company’s vehicle may contain asbestos waste.

The biggest risk comes from illegal activity. Fly tipping or ‘illegal’ transport of asbestos waste is more likely to result in a release of asbestos fibres. It has been known for ACMs to be dumped on a hard shoulder virtually uncontained. This is obviously a significant hazard and requires careful management.

What are the implications for incident management?

The difficulty for incident managers is identifying where asbestos may be involved. The clear-up operation will be carried out by a specialist, accredited contractors are typically sourced through the Service Provider's supply chain. Below is an extract from the Traffic Officer Manual Asbestos Guidance Note:

Asbestos containing material is not readily identifiable other than by reference to records or by implementing testing procedures on the suspect material.  Where vehicles, terrorists or vandals may have damaged, by fire, explosion or impact, any structure adjacent to, over, or under the network's carriageway, an immediate report should be made to, and advice sought from the RCC before taking any action.

Such vehicles should not be moved until assurances have been received from the RCC as to the known presence, or otherwise, of asbestos containing material in that structure.

Traffic Officers should not attempt to physically move vehicles involved in traffic accidents that may have damaged asbestos containing materials, on or off the carriageway.

These will be highway assets that are clearly not concrete, steel, glass etc. Typically these could be surface mounted verge telecom/cable troughs.

Other possibilities include:

• Vehicle fires under bridges, which are over the highway that could have permanent deck formwork with asbestos containing materials where the fire could release asbestos fibres.
• Moving over height vehicles trapped under bridges unless the deck soffit is clearly concrete.
• Vehicles impacted on bridge abutments that could be clad in anything but concrete.
• Overturned HGV's or smaller vehicles, carrying construction, demolition, waste/debris or any bagged material spilt on to the carriageway, which could be hazardous waste containing asbestos material.

The Traffic Officer should:

• Report any suspicion of asbestos presence to the RCC for attention by a specialist HA Contractor.
• Keep well away from clear-up operations by the specialist HA Contractor following an incident.
• Never touch or disturb accumulations of dust or debris, particularly in tunnels.

Similarly, Interim Advice Note 63/05 (678 KB PDF) has a section regarding unplanned or emergency work. There is a 'Process for Works after an Emergency Incident or Fly Tipping' in Annex 6 which has not been summarised in this article.

Finally

In most cases for ACMs in situ on the network the risks to responders and road users is very very small. Serious risk to health is a result of the accumulation of inhaled fibres in the lungs through regular exposure over a number of years. However, care does need to be taken in disturbing anything that is not obviously concrete, steel, timber, brick, glass etc and any dust or debris should be assumed to be a potential ACM. As with all aspects of life on the road – if in doubt ask for assistance.

Has this article been worthwhile reading? Why not take a moment to send us your comments, thoughts or questions. Please e-mail TIMbulletin@highways.gsi.gov.uk.