In France, at the current rate, more than 40 years will be needed to eradicate asbestos. For example, in 2015:

• 25,000 operations to remove or encapsulate asbestos (asbestos removal) have been declared;
• Nearly 130,000 tons of asbestos materials have been removed;
• 80% of those operations concerned buildings, and 12% industrial installations;
• Most of those operations concerned asbestos cement materials (80%).

Therefore, the main ministries concerned by asbestos issues (construction, environment, health and labour) developed an interministerial plan on asbestos in order to better coordinate this cross-sectoral issue. This 3 years plan, endorsed by the Prime Minister in december 2015, contains 5 areas :

• Strengthen and adapt information, including the creation of an interministerial public website;
• Improve and accelerate professionalisation;
• Facilitate and support enforcement of regulations;
• Support and promote R&D;
• Develop monitoring and evaluation tools.

The ministry of Labour also developed a strategic plan on asbestos (2017-2020). Professionalisation of asbestos sector is a priority axis of this strategy, and the ministry of Labour is taking various steps to implement it:

• As regards training in prevention for workers, the Ministry of Labour organized a prevention training scheme between 2009 and 2016 in collaboration with the National research and safety Institute (INRS) and the french Professional organisation for accident prevention in building and public (OPPBTP). This training involved 180 trainers, more than 30.000 workers, as well as 250 technical and quality managers from accredited organisations for dust control.
• In order to address the growing need for a technical and skilled workforce in the field of asbestos removal, the Ministry of Labour aims at creating new professional titles in this sector.
• A monitoring action of training organisations specialised in prevention for workers operating on materials containing asbestos (plumbers, heating engineers, electricians…) was also launched in 2015. At the end of 2016, 30% of these training organisations had been properly controlled.
• A network of 62 trainers has been established at regional level, in order to train the 2100 french labour inspectors to personal protection equipment reglementation in contaminated areas.