Health and Safety Training Providers to Offer Asbestos Awareness Training Online
Britannia Safety and Training has recently added online asbestos awareness training to its armoury of courses. Enabling companies to save time and money, this online version of the course allows managers to see who needs additional training.
Online, January 3, 2013 (Newswire.com) - There's no doubt that asbestos has been right at the very front of the priority list when it comes to health and safety in the UK mainly due to the amount of media coverage seen surrounding claims following the contraction of an asbestos related industrial disease.
The use of asbestos as a construction material on a large scale began in the 19th century, and the material grew to be popular thanks to its cheap, flexible and heat insulating properties but little was known of the consequences which were to appear 50 years later when the first signs of mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases came to the fore. Some regulations were introduced in 1969 but were not thorough enough, leading to an update in 1987 before a complete ban on using the substance in construction in 1999.
Only just last year another change to the Control of Asbestos Regulations was announced which came into force on 6 April. The changes to the regulations took into account the European Commission's view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos.
A company working with asbestos or which has staff members who are likely to come into contact with the substance in their work must be suitably trained so that they have the knowledge of how to deal with any situation which arises. There are three types of asbestos training: awareness training, training for asbestos that does not require a licence from the HSE and the one that does.
Britannia Safety and Training, operating from their base in Norfolk, have recently added to their range of training courses an online asbestos awareness refresher course which offers some additional benefits to those looking to train their staff members. Awareness training is for those who are liable to disturb asbestos during their everyday work activities or those who may be taking decisions on how work is carried out.
Asbestos awareness training includes: the knowledge of the properties of asbestos and how it can potentially affect people's health, the types used and where asbestos is likely to be found in buildings and workplaces, how to deal with an emergency and how to minimise risks of exposure to the potentially fatal substance. The HSE approves of e-learning as a method of training, and Britannia's online refresher asbestos awareness training is designed specifically to save company's time and money.
"Refresher asbestos awareness training needs to be conducted periodically, and for a large organisation it can be a chore to release a large proportion of their workers at the same time for them to attend refresher training courses at a training venue" comments Colin Wright, Managing Director at Britannia Safety and Training. "This is precisely why we developed our asbestos awareness training course online. With the HSE recognising e-learning, the refresher training course can be taken online allowing organisations to identify which of the team will need further training rather than investing in a training course for the entire staff which reduces time off-site."
Online refresher asbestos awareness training offers a solution to a busy organisation. Visit the Britannia website or contact their team to find out more about the e-learning system.
