Pre-construction asbestos inspection

A long-awaited text on asbestos detection prior to construction work has been postponed. Under the French Labor Code, asbestos surveys are still mandatory before any work is carried out on buildings.

Marie Faucon
EHS Consultant
Update : 
12.09.2025
Publication: 
10.05.2019
Contents
Example H2
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Asbestos prior to construction... A vast regulatory subject already covered... And yet, we're still waiting for regulatory texts on the subject! And the deadline has just been extended.

As a reminder, asbestos is a natural fiber that has been widely used in construction materials and products such as false ceilings, insulation, flockings and tiles. Exposure to asbestos can lead to respiratory diseases (pleural plaques, lung and pleura cancers, fibrosis, etc.).

The use of asbestos has been banned in France since January 1, 1997, but many buildings and equipment built before this date still contain it.

The French Labor Code stipulates that the client, project owner or owner of buildings, equipment, materials or articles must have the presence of asbestos investigated prior to any operation involving the risk of worker exposure to asbestos.

The search for asbestos must be carried out by means of anasbestos surveybefore any work is carried out, the conditions of which, and in particular the search methods and material analysis methods, are laid down by decree.

Note 1: This includes operations on buildings, equipment, materials or articles built or manufactured before the asbestos ban in France in 1997.

Note 2: This article is not intended as a reminder of all the regulations applicable to asbestos; it focuses on the "new" obligation to identify asbestos prior to work.

Asbestos spotting prior to construction: how it works

The spotting operator must have the qualifications and resources defined by decrees (to be published), and must not have any links of interest with any other party involved in the same work operation.

The project owner, client or owner must communicate all useful information to the spotting operator and respect his impartiality, including when his own employees are involved.

In certain limited situations (e.g., in the event of an emergency involving a serious risk, or if the operator is exposed to an excessive risk to his or her safety, or if repair or corrective maintenance work involves a level of dust estimated at less than 100 fibers per liter as part of the risk assessment), the inspector may find that the work cannot be carried out. In this case, the collective and individual protection of workers must be ensured in accordance with the measures laid down in the decrees, as if the presence of asbestos prior to work had been proven, and defined by the company in line with the risk assessment and the degree of urgency.

When the survey cannot be dissociated from the operation itself, for technical reasons communicated to the owner by the operator, the latter must carry out the survey as the operation progresses, in accordance with the procedures specified by the decrees.

Please note: once a survey has been carried out within a given perimeter, subsequent operations carried out within the same perimeter will not require a new survey, unless a new element makes this necessary.

Pre-works asbestos survey report

An asbestos detection report is drawn up. This report must conclude whether asbestos is present or not. If asbestos is present, it must contain the nature, location and estimated quantity of asbestos-contaminated materials.

This report must be made available to any new client or project owner for subsequent operations within the same perimeter.

In the case of buildings, the following documents are appended to the survey report where applicable:

  • asbestos technical file (DTA) ;
  • Report on the identification of materials and products on list C before demolition;
  • diagnosis of waste from demolition work, for buildings with a gross floor area (GFA) greater than 1,000 m² and/or which have hosted an agricultural, industrial or commercial activity and have been the site of the use, storage, manufacture or distribution of one or more hazardous substances.

The location report must :

  • be included in the demolition, removal or encapsulation plan;
  • be forwarded to the labour inspector and the CARSAT, when the foreseeable duration of an intervention likely to cause the emission of asbestos fibres exceeds 5 days;
  • be attached to the consultation documents given to the candidate companies or transmitted to the companies planning to carry out the operation;
  • be communicated by the head of the user company to the head of the outside company working on his premises;
  • be attached to the prevention plan;
  • be communicated, where appropriate, to the project manager and the health and safety coordinator (SPS). This report must then be attached to the DIUO (dossier d'intervention ultérieure sur l'ouvrage) drawn up by the SPS coordinator.

Application dates

This obligation to identify asbestos prior to construction work was originally due to come into force on October1, 2018. However, as the implementing decrees have not yet been issued, Decree no. 2019-251 of March 27, 2019 has postponed this deadline. The new timetable is as follows:

  • Buildings: as of March 1, 2019 ;
  • Other real estate such as land, civil engineering structures and transport infrastructure: as of October 1, 2020 ;
  • railway rolling stock and other transport rolling stock: as of January 1, 2020 ;
  • ships, boats, floating machines and other floating structures: as of January 1, 2020 ;
  • aircraft: as of July 1, 2020 ;
  • installations, structures or equipment contributing to the realization or implementation of an activity: July 1, 2020.

Note: despite this postponement, the decree concerning built-up buildings has not yet been published, even though the date has already passed! It would appear that there is some debate about making the NF X 46-020 standard "Location of asbestos-containing materials and products in built-up areas" mandatory.

In conclusion, pending publication of the decrees, the DGT (Direction Générale du Travail) indicates that asbestos spotting before work remains required on the basis of the risk assessment provided for in Article R. 4412-97 in its version resulting from the decree of May 4, 2012 and the general principles of prevention.

For work on buildings constructed before 1997, you can base your decision on the elements contained in your DTA. We'll keep you informed in a future article of the publication of the decrees and their content.

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