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FEBRUARY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO SPORT
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Football legend fears
risk of deadly asbestos
Former electrician backs Health and Safety Executive asbestos safety campaign after revealing ignorance over hidden killer.
England football star Stuart
Pearce is blowing the whistle on asbestos after revealing he could have breathed
in the deadly dust while
working part-time as an
electrician during his early
football career.
The former Nottingham Forest
manager and former Newcastle
and England left back fears his
ignorance about the fatal fibre,
means there’s a real possibility he
could develop a deadly asbestos
related disease in the future.
He is now backing an asbestos
safety campaign by the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) urging all
tradespeople to be aware of asbestos and take sensible measures
against the hidden killer.
While safe work with asbestos
has come a long way since Pearce
was working as tradesperson in
the early 1980s, it remains a very
real danger today. HSE estimates
1.3 million tradespeople are
still potentially at risk of being
exposed to the microscopic fibres
that can prove fatal if breathed
in.
Pearce said: “I was working as
an electrician for four and a half
years and it’s chilling to think I
could have been exposed to it
without knowing, we were simply
ignorant about the risks back
then.
“Today there’s no excuse, most
people know how dangerous
asbestos is but many think it’s a
thing of the past, it’s not, it’s still
there. It can be found in walls,
ceilings, even floor tiles and
guttering – basically in any type
of building built before the year
2000”.
“Making sure you’re aware of
where it can be found and how to
deal with it safely, even on basic
jobs like drilling holes or sanding,
really could mean the difference
between life and death.”
‘could mean the
difference between
life and death’
The trained electrician turned
football legend is also encouraging workers to use HSE’s free
web app for phones, tablets
and PCs that helps tradespeople
easily identify where they could
come into contact with asbestos
as they go about their day-to-day
work and gives them easy-to-follow guides on how to deal work
safely.
He added: “It can be so easy to
breathe in this deadly dust and
it may be years until you realise
you’ve been affected. Every tradesperson that falls victim to asbestos
related diseases like mesothelioma
and asbestosis is one too many, especially if it’s a result of ignorance.
Let’s make asbestos deaths a thing
of the past.”
To get the free web app please
visit www.beware-asbestos.info/
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