Project Manager: Girts Tilla, phone: +371 29336269

“Environmental Projects” are inviting to cooperation

According to legislation all asbestos containing waste must be taken to “Dumini” in Broceni region where the only asbestos containing waste ground in Latvia is located.

In order to promote maintenance of the environment in Latvia, "Environmental Projects" has offered its help to municipalities in delivering asbestos containing waste to this deposit area.

"Environmental Projects" are looking for partners to cooperate with such as waste managers or communal administrations in all the district centres.

Currently if every owner takes off his roof of 200 m2 separately, it weighs 2 tonnes. Its storage costs 50 Ls, transportation - another 150 Ls. Costs are pretty high. Transportation costs may be reduced by the cooperation of several asbestos waste collectors.

It is important to comply with job safety regulations

Since the beginning of the 20th century asbestos has been used intensely as thermo-insulation, fire safety and soundproofing material in construction.

In the period between the 70s and 80s it was discovered that asbestos fibres and dust can seriously affect human health. Tiny asbestos fibres weaken the human immune system. The most frequent diseases caused by asbestos are asbestoses, lung cancer and mesotheliomas. Asbestos can also cause tumours of the oesophagus, larynx, stomach, large intestine and rectum. All the diseases indicated might develop over a long period of time, between 15 and 30 years after the first contact with asbestos. Diseases caused by asbestos cannot be cured.

However, just because a building has an asbestos roof does not necessarily mean that human health and the environment will be damaged, when taking off the roof, it is possible to avoid the dangerous influence of asbestos.

Materials containing asbestos are hazardous to human health and the surrounding environment only in those cases when work safety regulations and environmental protection requirements are not followed when working.

For example, when taking off a slate roof, a labourer needs to be dressed in accordance to the safety regulations and he needs to be informed how the work needs to be carried out in order to comply with the environmental protection regulations.

Unfortunately, these regulations are not always obeyed.

Legislation states that an application, laying out a work plan for a dismantling job, needs to be submitted to the State Labour Inspectorate 10 days before beginning work (for example, taking off a slate roof). Before starting dismantling work labourers must be trained how to work with materials containing asbestos.

Labourers have to be dressed in special clothes while working, and a special mask needs to be worn over the nose and mouth. When materials have been taken off the building, they need to be put in special wrapping.

Unfortunately, in real life dismantling of a slate roof is often done in a rather brutal fashion – labourers take out all the nails and then slates are just thrown in a pile, then broken so they do not occupy as much space.

By doing that, there is a risk in getting lung cancer not only for the worker but also for other people living near by. If only one slate is crushed or broken, the danger to health is rather insignificant; however, a roof usually covers about 200 m2. Dust from asbestos fibres is very light, they do not settle but stay in the air for at least 8 hours.

Therefore all people living within 1 km are at risk of getting incurable diseases.

How can one avoid this? First of all, by informing people who get into contact with materials containing asbestos during their work.

When issuing architectural and planning tasks before starting to develop projects, municipal Building Inspectors must exercise their rights and indicate in the waste management section that hazardous wastes, which are created during the dismantling process, must be treated in accordance to Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers Nr. 852 and 425.

Secondly, an application must be submitted at the State Labour Inspectorate 10 days before starting work, and after beginning work, an applicant must adhere to the regulations set by State Labour Inspectorate.

Thirdly, the labourers themselves need to take care of their own safety, and, in the event that the supervisor does not comply with the legislation regarding work safety and working with materials containing asbestos, they must demand that these regulations are followed.

Fourthly, taking into account that there is a risk to neighbours of the surrounding houses posed, by for example, taking off a slate roof, then they can also inform the responsible authorities such as the State Labour Inspectorate (about violations of job safety) and the regional environmental directorate of respective area (about violations of environmental protection) in care for their health and safety of the surrounding environment.

Additional information is to be found on web site www.azbests.lv