The asbestos register, from first survey to handover

A guide to the register a workplace keeps for its asbestos, published by Dotto. It follows the model work health and safety laws first and names the states that differ.

What the register is

Safe Work Australia’s guide describes an asbestos register as a “workplace safety management tool”. For all material at the workplace that is identified as asbestos, assumed to contain it, or likely to contain it but out of reach for sampling, the register records where it is, what type it is, its condition and the date it was identified.

The same guide says the register is needed “if buildings, structures or plant at your workplace were built or installed before 2004, or in Queensland built before 1990”. In that case the person with management or control of the workplace must make sure a register is prepared and that workers, their health and safety representatives and other businesses at the workplace can readily get to it. The register comes from the model WHS Regulations, which every jurisdiction has implemented except Victoria; Victorian workplaces are pointed to WorkSafe Victoria.

Six columns, one guide each

Each column is one part of the duty.

Asbestos registerColumns A to F

Where the entries come from

Safe Work Australia’s guide says that before the register can be developed, you must first have a competent person survey your workplace and identify all asbestos and ACM.

The national agency describes a survey as a visual inspection of a building, structure or piece of equipment, together with sampling and testing of materials. Under the model regulations, a sample may be analysed only by a NATA-accredited laboratory accredited for the test, or a laboratory the regulator operates or approves.

Safe Work Australia is reviewing the model asbestos framework, and the model code these guides use is still the July 2020 edition.

Before anyone disturbs it

Asbestos in good condition that is left alone is unlikely to release fibres, and the model code rates the health risk then as extremely low. Disturbing it is what puts fibres in the air, and Safe Work Australia warns that breathing them can cause life-threatening diseases, among them asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, which may not show until 20 to 30 years after exposure.

The national agency says it is “not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself”, and its workplace page says WHS laws, in most circumstances, require removal from a workplace to be done by a licensed asbestos removalist.

Never on asbestos: the model regulations bar a business from using high-pressure water spray or compressed air on it; the agency warns against cleaning any asbestos material with high-pressure water or abrasion such as scrubbing, sanding or grinding; SafeWork NSW explains that cutting, drilling and water blasting release fibres into the air; and Queensland’s renovation guidance says not to “saw, sand, scrape or drill holes in asbestos materials”.

Asbestos waste, the agency says, must go to a landfill site licensed to accept it, and the model code adds that it never goes in the general waste system and is carried and disposed of under your own state or territory environment protection authority’s rules.

Who prepares it with you

The duty sits with whoever manages or controls the workplace, but Safe Work Australia’s guide says a competent person should be brought in to help develop the asbestos register. It lists who that may be: an occupational hygienist, a licensed asbestos assessor, or a removal supervisor who has experience with asbestos surveys; someone holding the statement of attainment for asbestos assessors; or a person working for a NATA-accredited inspection body. In the ACT, only a licensed asbestos assessor may identify asbestos.

A business that needs its register prepared or brought up to date can start by asking one of those people to survey the site.