18th October 2019
Asbestos Training Limited’s (ATL) three-day Duty to Manage – Appointed Persons course has enabled safe working practices to be put into place across a multinational company which employs more than 2,500 people worldwide.
Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) is an international peacekeeping force overseeing the terms of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, operating in and around the Sinai peninsula. Gordon Dryden is the Force Safety Officer.
With more than 15 years’ experience in health and safety, following a five-year military career, Gordon is responsible for overseeing the health and safety across MFO locations worldwide. And with regional offices in Cairo and Tel Aviv, the main HQ in Rome as well as UK locations, it’s no small feat.
Gordon joined MFO in 2018, and one of his first tasks was to tackle asbestos across the organisation’s sites in all locations.
He explained: “I was asbestos aware before joining MFO because of my previous roles and knew what to look out for. Because the Egyptian Israel Treaty was signed in 1979 and most of the buildings we have were built around that time, I knew there would be a large asbestos presence which had to be tackled.
“Asbestos needs to be properly managed in order to minimise risk, so it was important to get the appropriate knowledge and accreditation to support that process.”
Working for an organisaton with sites in both Europe and the developing world, presented a unique challenge to Gordon. To ensure he got the correct most-up-to-date asbestos information and certification, Gordon enrolled on ATL’s open Duty to Manage – Appointed Persons course held in Cambridge.
Whilst asbestos was banned across many European countries in the nineties, it wasn’t until 2005 that an EU directive mandated that all member states ban asbestos, leading to a delayed awareness of the dangers of asbestos in the developing world.
Prior to its ban, asbestos was used as building material worldwide due to its insulating, heat retardant properties. In Egypt, asbestos has been used for thousands of years. Between 2000-3000 BC the embalmed bodies of Egyptian pharaohs were wrapped in asbestos cloth as a protective measure.
Today, although the import and manufacture of all types of asbestos was banned in Egypt in 2005, it is still allowed to be used in manufacturing. At one point 14 factories in Cairo alone were using asbestos in the products they manufactured, often with little to no security measures for staff or its disposal.
Striving to achieve UK standards as a minimum across all MFO sites, Gordon reached out to ATL and joined the three-day UKATA-approved Duty to Manage – Appointed Persons course, an industry-wide course which ATL Managing Director Graham O’Mahoney developed for the leading asbestos training association.
The course is designed for people like Gordon who are responsible for asbestos containing materials in buildings which are defined within the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR), HSG 264 – Asbestos: The Survey Guide (HSG264) and HSG 227.
The regulations require duty holders to identify the location and condition of asbestos in non-domestic premises and to manage the risk to prevent harm to anyone who works on the building or to building occupants.
Gordon commented: “I went into the course not really expecting to learn anything new if I’m completely honest. I’ve worked around asbestos for years and really just needed to get certified. I was pleasantly surprised – I got what I was expecting and more. I walked away confident that I now have the knowledge and resources required to manage on site asbestos and minimise the risks moving forward.”
Gordon views the three-day course as an enabling process and has since implemented huge plans across MFO. “We’ve already started implementing a five to 10-year plan to remove or encapsulate all risk from asbestos,” he explained. “Whilst the intentions were already there, the course enabled me to go about implementing these plans with the correct information, accreditation and documentation to ensure that things are done once and done properly.”
ATL’s Duty to Manage – Appointed Persons course is delivered at venues throughout the UK and can also be delivered inhouse. To find out more, get in touch with a member of team.