Managing asbestos on the railway
A
s with any other sector, it is essential that sufficient information regarding the potential location of asbestos in the rail network, both within buildings, rolling stock (trains) and rail infrastructure is recorded prior to any demolition, repair or refurbishment works taking place. With this in mind, it is equally important for rail workers to know what to do if an ACM is disturbed, while also being aware of the health risks associated with the inhalation of asbestos fibres. The general rule of thumb is that ACMs will only pose a risk to health if they are disturbed or damaged. If they are in good condition and are left untouched, they should not pose any danger. However, if a building or location has no known information about whether or not it contains asbestos, it must be assumed to contain the fibrous mineral, with action immediately taken to determine if this is the case. Where might asbestos be located on rail premises/rolling stock? It is possible that any train, station or depot constructed before the year 2000 may contain asbestos. In buildings, it is often found in ceiling tiles, insulation boards, vinyl floor tiles, roof sheeting and pipe lagging, and railway buildings are no exception. Its fire resistant and insulating properties also made it a highly popular material for the construction and maintenance of trains. Located predominantly within engine rooms, brake pad linings and piston cylinders, asbestos in its varying forms has also been discovered in such materials as:
• Millboards in catering vehicles, exhaust pipes in engines/locomotives and skirting within seating partitions (chrysotile – white asbestos) • Paste under locomotive frames and insulating boards (amosite – brown asbestos) • Sprayed fibres on the sides, roofs, ends and floors of rail vehicles (crocidolite – blue asbestos) • Textiles and arc chutes – many old rolling stock still incorporate ACMs within textiles and arc chutes, the latter of which are used in circuit breakers within all types of electrical equipment to insulate and protect circuits from shorting • Asbestos cement – the fibres in asbestos cement products are firmly bound in the material and will only be released if the product is subjected to breakage. Asbestos cement products that are used externally will weather slowly, so risk of exposure from fibre release is low if the material is left undisturbed • Ballast – can often have some asbestos contamination present as a result of material dropping from trains/stations and trackside debris coming into contact with the tracks. When ballast is recycled, an opportunity arises to check the material and remove any contamination prior to it being used after processing.
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