Safety Signs News

Safety stickers used in university asbestos management

10th February 2011 | Health and Safety Signs

Posted by Jason Nicholls.

Health and safety stickers have been used by a US university to label potential asbestos danger areas in some of its student halls of residence and buildings.

The University of Washington began labelling areas on campus that could potentially arise asbestos after agreeing an asbestos compliance programme with the city's Department of Labour and Industries, the Daily - the university's in-house paper - reports.

After identifying potential areas, a contractor was hired to place safety stickers on them.
Denis Sapiro, manager in the university's health and safety office, told the newspaper: "Two years ago, we started labelling [places containing asbestos that could be damaged] and it takes a while to go through 300 buildings."

While the decision to label potentially hazardous areas sounds alarming, the university's asbestos compliance analyst, Roy Smith, told the Daily: "These labels don't indicate that there is an exposure hazard.

"It indicates that there is asbestos present and that we want to make sure that we don't disturb it."

Asbestos is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, according to the Health and Safety Executive. ADNFCR-2754-ID-800396546-ADNFCR