Asbestos Testing Services

Do you suspect you have a problem with asbestos on your property? If so, Safeline Environmental can help, we have a broad range of asbestos services including asbestos testing services. Whatever the size of your project large or small, we can help. We also collaborate with clients from all sectors including the public sector, commercial clients, and private residents. Read below to learn about asbestos testing and how we approach this work.

What is asbestos testing?

Asbestos testing is completed following (or sometimes during) an asbestos survey. Testing involves taking samples of suspected asbestos-contaminated materials from identified locations.

Samples are taken by a qualified competent asbestos professional with appropriate PPE. Once taken they are sent to a UKAS accredited lab for analysis. The testing results need to be available before any disruptive work on the ACMs is conducted.

What does the HSE say about testing for asbestos?

Conveniently the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) have published a guide to testing for asbestos. This is contained within Section nine - “Testing for asbestos” of their “Managing my Asbestos” series of guides.

Concisely, section nine says:

• If you are not planning any work, you do not need to use an asbestos testing service
• All future subsequent work (surveys, testing, etc.,) require safety precautions to be in place
• Where work is planned a survey would be completed before testing, there are several types of surveys, which may be required, these are:
  • Asbestos management survey
  • Asbestos refurbishment survey and
  • Asbestos demolition survey
• Where tests are needed:
  • Any of the surveys may lead to samples being needed/taken
  • Testing may be required on materials, equipment and soil, etc.,
  • An expert company will be needed to complete these tests (such as Safeline Environmental), although in certain circumstances asbestos testing kits may be sufficient
  • The expert company will detect if asbestos is present or absent and
  • If materials are not evaluated, they are assumed to contain asbestos

When is testing completed?

Asbestos testing will typically follow an asbestos survey. Materials that are identified as high risk in the survey and are thought to be contaminated with asbestos will be subject to asbestos testing. The testing will be from either:

1. a) Single samples or
2. b) Bulk samples

Can I test samples myself?

The honest answer is “yes” you can use asbestos testing kits yourself, but perhaps a more pertinent question is “why would you want to?”

There are types of asbestos testing kits available (some better than others), but to the untrained, taking asbestos samples is risky. If following laboratory analysis your samples are positive for asbestos, then you will need to employ licensed asbestos removal experts anyway!

Our advice is to outsource the various processes to a professional asbestos services organisation (like Safeline Environmental) and not to cut corners to save what are typically low amounts of money.

Laboratory analysis of samples

These samples are assessed for the presence of suspected ACMs, the tests will be completed at an independent and UKAS accredited testing laboratory. The results from the laboratory will determine whether there is any asbestos contamination in the material and also, where applicable, the type of asbestos found (e.g., Amosite, Chrysotile, Crocidolite, etc.,)

Asbestos is almost always found in ACMs, rather than finds of pure asbestos. ACMs cover hundreds of products but are frequently found in cement, fire blankets, insulation boards, pipe lagging, roofing, sprayed coatings, textured coating (e.g., Artex), tiles, and toilet seats and cisterns. For more details read our article - https://www.safeline-environmental.co.uk/products-with-asbestos/.

Other asbestos services from Safeline Environmental

As well as asbestos testing services, we also supply a range of other asbestos-related services. A detailed guide to all of our asbestos services can be found at https://www.safeline-environmental.co.uk/asbestos-services/. Other services available include:

• Asbestos audits – a comprehensive audit of the asbestos risks in an organisation, this could be for one or multiple sites
• Asbestos awareness training – we provide training to raise awareness of the risks of asbestos
• Asbestos encapsulation – we can keep asbestos in situ but encapsulate it, so it poses no risk
• Asbestos removal – we remove asbestos from your property
• Asbestos surveys and sampling – these are the process tasks described earlier immediately before testing is completed and
• Asbestos waste collection and disposal – once the asbestos is removed, we can collect it and then dispose of it at an accredited asbestos disposal landfill site

Booking asbestos testing services with Safeline Environmental

Whatever asbestos services you require we deliver across the entire project lifecycle. Contact us in the following ways to book asbestos testing or to clarify your requirements:

• Telephone - 01299 251083
• Email - info@safeline-env.co.uk and
• Contact Form – by clicking this link