A national ban on the importation, storage, supply, sale, installation or re-use of any product containing asbestos was introduced in December 2003. More information see WorkSafe Victoria website Prohibitions on Asbestos.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS 2007 - Part 4.3 Asbestos
The consolidated OHS regulation came into effect on July 1, 2007.
The Regulations cover in situ asbestos, demolition and refurbishment. They impose responsibilities and duties on employers, occupiers, self-employed people, designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers and employees. The regulations also cover a number of asbestos-related activities that are carried out in workplaces.
The Regulations ban the use of all forms of asbestos in all work processes (although there are a number of exemptions).
Two Compliance Codes have been developed to provide further guidance on:
The Exposure Standard sets out the time weighted average fibre concentration in the air breathed by a worker calculated over an eight hour working shift. It is now 0.1 fibre/millilitre of air for all forms of asbestos, in all circumstances.
The Exposure Standard
Summary of Part 4.3 Asbestos of the Regulations
See also:
-
The Asbestos Topic Information page on the VWA website.
-
VWA has also published a useful document - Asbestos: A Handbook for Workplaces.