Asbestos In Materials Scheme (AIMS) - Explained

In this episode Neil and Ian explain the Asbestos in Materials Scheme (AIMS). AIMS assesses the performance of laboratories carrying out the identification of asbestos in bulk materials. UK laboratories are required to be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) to ISO 17025 to undertake this particular analysis as part of assessing whether materials contain asbestos under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.

Transcript

Neil: Hi! Welcome to the Asbestos Knowledge Empire, my name is Neil Munro.

Ian: I'm Ian Stone. Today, we are going to be talking about AIMS. What is AIMS? What does it mean? Well, for us it's Asbestos In Material Scheme which sounds boring as hell. Our laboratory hates it. The lab analysts absolutely hate it but it is a necessity.

Neil: Yes, it is a scheme operated by the HSE testing and monitoring department who oversee these kind of management and registration of members, and it is basically Asbestos samples that are sent out to UK accredited labs to basically assess and test that to the labs who are performing to how they should be.

Ian: Yeah, it is like a quality control, so our asbestos laboratory we analyze samples for clients. Clients bring them in, our surveyors bring samples in and we undertake what's known in the industry as bulk sampling analysis. So what we do for that is we inspect the materials initially on the microscope. And we are basically looking for anything that looks like asbestos form fiber, and if we do come across fibers that look like asbestos then we melt them in refractive index liquids, that is basically a liquid that's got a certain refractive indexy of light. And then we basically use another microscope, a polarizing light microscope and there are various steps that we go through, pulling all knobs, tweezers, buttons, etcetera.

Neil: Do you know them?

Ian: Not anymore. Yeah, basically we follow all these process and only when we followed that process for that fiber if it does exhibit all of those details then basically that's at the point where we say, right, that is 100% asbestos or no it is not asbestos. And that's what we do for all the different fiber types within any sample that we bring in or clients bring us in.

Neil: And that is just why I have tested. We're looking and we are working towards and we can actually do.

Ian: Yes. It is an external kind of quality control scheme as such, so basically once a quarter, once every three months they send out four samples in lovely little foil packaged like a sample bags. And within those sample bags it can be anything. And it could be real samples so, I don't know, could be a piece of asbestos cement or they also make up their own samples as well.

Neil: More common than not.

Ian: More common than not, yeah.

Neil: They are really pain in the ass ones which are you never see in real life.

Ian: No, and it is a funny one. Yeah, you don't see them in real life because they'll get like ice cube trays and they'll pour cement in and then they'll mix in different fiber types. It could be asbestos. It could be non-asbestos fiber type. Literally whatever they want. They throw into the sample, get a little bit of both, and essentially that could be one sample. So when it comes to us, pop it out on the bag, in the cabinet and you look at the sample and it's a gray block of something that doesn't look like anything that has ever come from site. And then it is our analyst's job to break it down, break it apart into spec throughout the entire sample to find anything that is asbestos or not asbestos. And then at the end of it put their balls on the line and say, "Yes, it is asbestos and these are the fiber types I'm stating that's in it", or "Nope. I've analyzed that sample fully and there is no asbestos in there."

Neil: And sometimes it can be very, very transfibers and they are hard to identify. It is a way of checking, I don't know, that sounds a bit like how they do that. But when you're a bulk analyst and you are analyzing hundreds of samples a week, you're generally seeing the same sort of samples, so you see cement, you see texture coatings, you see vinyl, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. That can come that you know you can look at a sample and you know.

Ian: [unclear – 4:13]

Neil: [unclear – 4:14] what asbestos type is going to be in it. However, there are rare occasions and there are sort of oddities out there where we get samples come in and it has got rare forms of asbestos fiber in it or very trace amounts of stuff. It is basically through evaluate that standard really to make sure you are always expecting the non asbestos and asbestos. And this is a good way of keeping the illness on their toes, keeping their eye in to make sure they are looking for the rare types in particular and definitely the trace amount of asbestos fibers in the samples.

Ian: Yeah it does. It gives one of the ties and kind of stops complacency setting in with those samples. And like you say they can be, I don't know, they can be normal samples, they can be really hard samples, they can be non-asbestos samples. Quite a good one that they throw in now and again is fore damaged asbestos, so not any analysts they will know when you go through the motions. It will only exhibit certain properties. It won't exhibit all of them because it's been damaged by the fire.

Neil: Yeah, it's usually how to get a [unclear – 5:17] in those samples.

Ian: Yeah, exactly, really difficult. But it is still asbestos. It is still an asbestos formed fiber and again it's kind of proving the analyst do know what they are doing and it sends that kind of benchmark. And like I say there is basically four samples, once a quarter they send out.

Neil: All UK accredited labs have do. It is part of their accreditation, maintain a level of confidence within the AIM samples.

Ian: Yup. And also this kind of complements in-house quality control measures like once a month some of these samples, again, the analyst have to do. We've got our own pool of samples. Some are easy, some are hard, some are horrible.

Neil: Some are spiked. So you know because a lot of times you have texture coating generally speaking that it is always ever been cause on that was use in that. Sometimes you get a spiked texture coating samples. And it is just to keep people in their toes to make sure they are actually following the step properly and identifying those fiber types correctly.

Ian: Yeah, examining the full sample for what it is, not the presumption of, oh it is texture coating, right I'm going to find chrysotile.

Neil: Yeah, definitely. And the AIMS ones that are very hot on that and they like for instance they love their vinyl tile sample but on one little corner they'll put some asbestos pigment just on a little dot on the corner. So if you have not scan in the whole sample you won't find it.

Ian: There is one that I remember few years ago. There was a blue carpet tile and between the carpet tile itself the blue fiber is on top of the actual backing some lovely person stuffed a load of chrysolite blue asbestos in there.

Neil: Wow, so blue fibers.

Ian: Yeah, blue fibers on a carpet tile that look like I don't know. It just been brought from being queue that morning.

Neil: When they are scanning it from that you know.

Ian: It is modern.

Neil: Yeah, exactly, you are looking at and ask, "This is a new carpet. What is all this about?" Yeah, that's sort of tricks they have to, isn't it. It is to keep everyone on their toes and to make sure that, you know, giving everyone the level of confidence particularly the individual, or kind of less the company as a whole and the industry as a whole just to keep that sort of consistency and to make sure that we are doing it correctly.

Ian: Yeah, explain a little bit about some of the hoops that we have to jump through as part of our kind of accreditation, our procedures.

Neil: Yup, so that definitely keeps our bulk analysts. They love that every quarter. Don't they? [unclear – 7:34]

Ian: It is always the dreaded AIMS.

Neil: The dreaded AIMS.

Ian: It is all good. They always get alive.

Neil: They are used to it to even get signed up they have to pass AIMS, so yeah you can rest assure that the bulk analysts are…

Ian: They know what they are doing.

Neil: They know what they are doing.

Ian: And they are the checks that are in place. It is not like, I don't know. They've been doing the job. They are alright. They are being externally qualified and verified for it.

Neil: And it is the ongoing thing isn't it? It is the ongoing so it is not just you pass one time and you're over the hurdle.

Ian: Back in 1974, I'll pass this thing and I'm alright. Now, it is like, no, no, you've got to keep continually proving your worth and proving that you are doing what you should be doing.

Neil: Yeah, because we all know that complacency sets in and when you analyze in cement sample after cement sample you can't take there, you know, you can't presume. You do have to follow that set process every single time to make sure you identify it correctly.

Ian: See that's the Asbestos In Materials Scheme or AIM Scheme. I hope you find that useful. If you've got any other kind of, I don't know, if something comes in you think, I wonder how they do that, or why they do that, or whatever, please contact us through the Facebook group just search Asbestos Knowledge Empire. Remember, asbestos first, not last.