Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear I do not hold an asbestos qualification and I refuse to touch the stuff professionally.
However, my father said he'd pay for me to buy the vacuum cleaner as I need to take up some old asbestos Marley tiles and probably remove some Artex (I've had both tested) in my own home. The tiles do need to be removed as I need to remove the concrete floor (plus it would be handy to have such a vacuum as there is probably a certain level of contamination in the house and, later, when I do asbestos training, I could use it for work).
The HSE recommends a BS8520 vacuum cleaner. Many class H vacuums seem to be designed for asbestos removal but aren't certified to that standard.
One well-known company I spoke to told me that its vacuums aren't certified to BS 8520 as its products would comply with much higher standards, which sounds plausible when we consider the situation with bicycle lights is exactly that (yet when I looked at what the standards his machine complied with, it wasn't clear from the brief descriptions available online/the BSI website that the standards had anything to do with asbestos (and without paying more than the cost of the vacuum for access to the standards, how can I know?).
Has anyone on here done any asbestos removal training and might be able to tell me if this is the case, i.e. if I buy a machine that is designed specifically for removing hazardous waste, comes with a certificate of filtration, and is fitted with filters to EN1822, will this be as good as a vacuum to BS 8520 (-2, presumably) or not?
However, my father said he'd pay for me to buy the vacuum cleaner as I need to take up some old asbestos Marley tiles and probably remove some Artex (I've had both tested) in my own home. The tiles do need to be removed as I need to remove the concrete floor (plus it would be handy to have such a vacuum as there is probably a certain level of contamination in the house and, later, when I do asbestos training, I could use it for work).
The HSE recommends a BS8520 vacuum cleaner. Many class H vacuums seem to be designed for asbestos removal but aren't certified to that standard.
One well-known company I spoke to told me that its vacuums aren't certified to BS 8520 as its products would comply with much higher standards, which sounds plausible when we consider the situation with bicycle lights is exactly that (yet when I looked at what the standards his machine complied with, it wasn't clear from the brief descriptions available online/the BSI website that the standards had anything to do with asbestos (and without paying more than the cost of the vacuum for access to the standards, how can I know?).
Has anyone on here done any asbestos removal training and might be able to tell me if this is the case, i.e. if I buy a machine that is designed specifically for removing hazardous waste, comes with a certificate of filtration, and is fitted with filters to EN1822, will this be as good as a vacuum to BS 8520 (-2, presumably) or not?
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