The widespread use of this mineral in the construction sector, before knowing its harmful effects on health, today requires particular management by companies. The Experts of the Lifeanalytics Group for 5 years they took care of the real estate assets of the municipality of Milan and others, from various banking groups, welfare funds, real estate, etc., managing the security of over 3.000 properties. The combination of the skills of the CSG Palladio laboratories in Vicenza and Veram in Rome allows the Group to support numerous Italian companies in the management of asbestos risk.
The process of securing buildings begins with sampling. The laboratories and consultants of the Group in recent years have registered over 5.000 properties, allowing for mapping and management of the remediation of numerous high-risk sites for health. The important objective of the census and risk management activity is to ensure that the asbestos products that remain in place do not release respirable fibers into the environments: the inhalation of carcinogenic asbestos fibers is what makes exposure to asbestos dangerous to health.
“The materials containing asbestos, even if in a small percentage, can be varied. Every new ones are always discovered. It is for this reason that experience is a fundamental requirement - explains Eng. Cristiano Sentinelli Location Manager of the Lifeanalytics Group - The technicians involved in the research and mapping activities have specific training and one twenty years of knowledge of materials, their characteristics and their functions, this allows experts to search and locate asbestos in a targeted manner inside buildings, isolating areas and preventing occupants from inadvertently handling contaminated materials ”.
Once recognized, the materials are sampled and analyzed. The analysis is performed on bulk samples, on airborne asbestos fibers and on other matrices, such as water, using advanced tools and adapting the analytical methodology to the type of sample.
“To be able to have one advanced and constantly updated instrumentation technology allows our technicians to carry out precise and sustainable analyzes - declares Dr. Fabio Tirabosco Technical Manager Asbestos and Materials Technology of the Lifeanalytics Group - For this reason, the CSG Palladio laboratory in Vicenza is today one of the few companies of excellence in Italy because it is the only laboratory dedicated to this analysis, accredited to perform all the analytical techniques on the market, and which is developing methods to identify new potentially dangerous minerals including fluoro-edenite ”.
To date, the Vicenza laboratory, part of the Lifenalytics Group, analyzes over 40.000 samples annually.
Once identified, if the materials have a poor state of conservation and it is not possible to guarantee the safety levels for the occupants, the contaminated materials and the area in which they exist must be reclaimed. The asbestos remediation operation it must be performed by highly specialized technicians and according to high safety standards, preventing the asbestos fibers present in the materials from dispersing into the air.
"Guarantee the safety of citizens and workers, especially when it comes to asbestos risk management, we believe it is one of the top priorities of many Italian entrepreneurs. A long way has come since the passage of the asbestos law. Today we know this material better, we have new cutting-edge equipment to identify and analyze it. However, it is essential to keep informed to know how to manage it always at the best guaranteeing not only the health of citizens but also greater environmental sustainability in the long term ". concludes Giovanni Giusto, CEO of Lifeanalytics.
In order to support companies in finding the best possible risk management model, Lifeanalytics will organize in March a cycle of online seminars aimed at corporate Risk Management managers. The first webinar "Asbestos Census: which and how many materials can contain asbestos in a building?" Will be held the 4 March; The second one "Sampling and analysis: how does the sampling and analysis of materials containing asbestos take place?" It will take place the 11 March, finally the 18 March we will talk about “Asbestos risk assessment and management: how to assess and manage asbestos risk in a safe and effective way?”.