Asbestos is not just a problem of the past. It can be present today in any building built or refurbished before 2000.
You cannot see, smell or feel the fibres in the air or on your clothes, so you do not know they are there.
When materials that contain asbestos are disturbed or damaged, fibres are released into the air. When people inhale these fibres they can cause serious diseases which cannot be cured. The most common diseases caused by asbestos are:
mesothelioma
asbestosis
asbestos-related lung cancer
These diseases will not affect you immediately – they often take a long time to develop. But once you have been diagnosed it is often too late to do anything. This is why it is important to protect yourself and others now.
President of IOSH 2008, Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
I am pleased that you are helping dispel some of the dafter myths that surround OH&S (a passion you and I clearly have in common) and the item clearly indicates that as with so many of our professional colleagues you are not about stopping fun on the pretext of H&S. It is only with the help of people such as yourself that we will eventually get the message across that OH&S is about bringing (as you so aptly put it) purpose and value to peoples lives
