40-Year Asbestos Removal Deadline Proposed

United Kingdom Proposes 40-Year Asbestos Removal Deadline

The United Kingdom’s Work and Pensions Committee has proposed a 40-year timeline to complete the regulated removal of all long-standing legacy asbestos from public and commercial buildings, potentially setting a new standard for other nations to follow.

Its proposal was recently delivered to the House of Commons with a recommendation that the government and Health and Safety Executive incorporate the findings into their approach to asbestos management.

The U.K. already is one of more than 60 nations in the world to have banned asbestos, but none have passed this type of regulation for legacy asbestos, which has been killing people worldwide for decades.

This latest directive could be groundbreaking.

“Asbestos is one of the great workplace tragedies of modern times,” Stephen Timms, a member of the British Parliament and chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, said about the proposal. “While the extreme exposures of the late 20th century are now behind us, the risk from asbestos remains real.”