SAFE Training through its courses and those it instructs is working to improve safety and the quality of the built environment by the removal of environmental hazards - To Protect Life.

The clearest example of the threat environmental hazards pose to public safety is shown by one of the most common - asbestos.

Valued for its inert nature, tensile strength, thermal and electrical insulation qualities and inflammability, asbestos became the wonder material of 20th Century construction. As its use increased, so did evidence of the risk its fibrous structure poses to human health.

Now largely banned in the developed world, the legacy of the asbestos boom is far from past:

• Worldwide it is estimated that 125 million people remain exposed to asbestos in the workplace
• It is a killer. Each year some 4,500 people currently die from asbestos related diseases in the UK alone, with deaths likely to be up to 7,000 before 2025 (HSE, 2010)
• Actuaries estimate that the cost of asbestos claims to the UK insurance industry will top well in excess of £11 billion over the next 40 years

With asbestos forecast to remain a risk well into the second half to the 21st Century and a growing awareness of other environmental hazards to public health, these are issues not restricted to trades people and construction industry workers. They affect us all.

They are the context of our vision To Protect Life, which is why they are at the heart, and the business, of Silverdell Group companies.