Asbestos management a statewide priority

Original article published by SafeWork South Australia

SafeWork SA has commenced a statewide proactive compliance campaign on asbestos management at workplaces.

Australia has one of the highest rates of asbestos-related diseases in the world, with approximately 4,000 deaths each year from exposure to asbestos. This is more than double the number of annual Australian road deaths.

Many public and commercial buildings, homes and infrastructure contain large amounts of ageing asbestos-containing materials (ACM’s), SafeWork SA will be focussing on the identification and management of asbestos in buildings built prior to 31 December 2003.

SafeWork SA inspectors will be checking that person with management and control of the workplace has ensured:

• that asbestos at the workplace is identified
• the location of asbestos is clearly indicated and recorded in an asbestos register
• there is a written asbestos management plan if asbestos has been identified (or is likely to be present from time to time)
• that the asbestos register has been reviewed / revised prior to demolition or refurbishment commencing.

Asbestos.sa.gov.au has self-assessment checklists available for persons with management and control of a workplace.

• Asbestos safety checklist
• Asbestos refurbishment & demolition checklist

National Strategic Plan

This campaign supports the National Strategic Plan for Asbestos Awareness and Management 2019-2023 by the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency (ASEA) national priority to improve asbestos awareness to influence behavioural change, identification, effective legacy management and the following national targets:

• all regulators have in place and have implemented asbestos compliance programs
• all commercial buildings which are required by law to maintain asbestos registers, have up-to-date registers and management plans that are actively being implemented.

Further information

Information on asbestos can be found on the South Australian Government asbestos website which provides practical information about asbestos, how to identify it, and how to have it safely removed.

See SafeWork SA’s short video on asbestos registers.