The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has joined forces with the asbestos training industry to help workers throughout the country protect themselves from asbestos dust.

The executive hopes to achieve a target of 4,000 asbestos awareness training hours as well as another 4,000 hours of online training to be provided during October and November and which will be aimed at tradesmen like joiners, electricians and plumbers who are most at risk from asbestos-relates diseases. The figure of 4,000 was specifically chosen as that is the approximate number of deaths each year from exposure to the dust.

A glance at the figures shows that any new campaigns aimed at helping increase awareness of the risks are badly needed. Since the late 1960s over 40,000 people in Britain have lost their lives to mesothelioma, the asbestos-related cancer and the most recent figures, for 2008, showed the numbers dying from the disease up three percent on the previous year.

Called "Our Hidden Killer", the campaign aims to stress to workers that asbestos exposure is not a historical problem and that approximately half a million buildings throughout the country still contain it. The HSE says that with industry playing more of a role in increasing awareness, along with help from asbestos support groups, there is hope that risks to workers now and in the future can be minimised.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/hse-asbestospledge.htm#?eban=rss-press-release