Asbestos Awareness
Asbestos Awareness is an online course of approximately 30-45 minutes for trades, maintenance, facilities and other workers who could disturb asbestos in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. It covers what asbestos is, what it does to you, where it is found, finding out before you start, and what to do if you disturb it. Scored assessment, 0.75 CPD hours.
Description
Asbestos Awareness is an online course of approximately 30-45 minutes. Who it is for: Trades, maintenance, facilities and other workers who could disturb asbestos in buildings built or refurbished before 2000. General operatives by default.
The course has five short lessons:
- What asbestos is, and why it is everywhere: What asbestos is, the three common types, why it was used, when it was banned, and why any pre-2000 building may still contain it.
- What it does to you: How asbestos fibres damage the lungs, the diseases they cause, the smoking multiplier, and the scale of deaths.
- Where it is found: The materials that release fibres most easily, the lower-risk materials, and where to expect them in a building.
- Finding out before you start: The duty to manage asbestos, the asbestos register, survey types, and what to ask before starting work.
- If you disturb it, and the law: What to do if you discover or accidentally disturb asbestos, contamination of clothing, and the law for you and your employer.
Every teaching page is narrated with captions and includes an interaction. Each lesson before the last ends with a knowledge check, and the last lesson closes with a 12-question assessment drawn from all five lessons (70% to pass, unlimited retakes, results by lesson) and a set of personal commitments recorded with the result.
This course is asbestos awareness. It is not training to work with asbestos of any kind: licensed, notifiable non-licensed or non-licensed work each needs its own training. It is Acadame's own course and is not UKATA accredited.
Main sources: Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 regs 2,4,5,6,10; HSE L143; HSE HSG264; HSE Asbestos essentials em1; Asbestos (Prohibitions) Regulations 1985; Amendment 1999; HSE, Asbestos-related disease statistics 2026.
Qualification Breakdown
By the end of this course the learner will be able to:
- Explain what asbestos is, why it was used, and why pre-2000 buildings may contain it.
- Explain how asbestos harms you and why there is no known safe level.
- Recognise the materials and places where asbestos is most likely to be found.
- Find out what is there before you start, using the asbestos register.
- Act correctly if you discover or disturb asbestos, and know the law.
Certificate validity
1 year