November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month

HSE is shining a light on occupational lung diseases and how we can work together to protect workers’ health.  

It is estimated that 12,000 people die from work-related lung diseases every year.

These deaths, linked to exposure to hazardous substances at work, include lung cancer and approximately 5,000 asbestos-related disease deaths.

HSE is currently running 2 campaigns to highlight the risks of asbestos and how to stay safe. For free resources and information, visit our campaign pages:  

• Asbestos – Your Duty provides guidance and templates to support dutyholders with the legal duty to manage asbestos in buildings  

• Asbestos and You highlights the risk of asbestos to tradespeople and includes a free quick guide for tradespeople to download  

Asbestos remains in millions of homes and buildings today and it can become dangerous when disturbed or damaged

Whether you are a worker, building owner, landlord, employer or person responsible for building maintenance, you should be aware of where asbestos is most frequently found in buildings in order to protect yourself and others. 

HSE’s updated image gallery can help you identify asbestos in typical locations and take the right action to minimise exposure. For each asbestos product type, the page explains: 

Additional asbestos resources are available from HSE's website

Asbestos can be present in any building that was built or refurbished before 2000 and can be hidden. HSE has:

• diagrams showing where asbestos can occur in buildings
• industrial and residential ‘where asbestos hides’ A3 posters (available to purchase from the HSE Books website)