In these Regulations—

• “the 1997 WHO recommended method” means the method of determining airborne fibre concentrations recommended in the document “Determination of airborne fibre concentrations. A recommended method, by phase-contrast optical microscopy (membrane filter method)” published by the World Health Organization, Geneva, 1997 (ISBN 92 4 154496 1), or any other method giving equivalent results which is approved by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency or the Health and Safety Executive;

• “the Act” means the Merchant Shipping Act 1995;

• “the area of activity” means the area where activity likely to involve a risk of exposure to asbestos is carried out;

• “asbestos” means the following fibrous silicates, and any materials or products consisting of or containing these fibrous silicates— asbestos actinolite, CAS No 77536–66–4, asbestos gruenerite (amosite), CAS No 12172–73–5, asbestos anthophyllite, CAS No 77536–67–5, F1chrysotile, CAS No 12001-29-5 or CAS No 132207-32-0, crocidolite, CAS No 12001–28–4, and asbestos tremolite, CAS No 77536–68–6;

• “CAS No” means the number in the Registry of the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) M1;

• “contract of employment” means a contract of employment, whether express or implied, and if express, whether oral or in writing;

• “demolition” means ship-breaking or ship-recycling;

• “employer” means a person by whom a worker is employed on a ship under a contract of employment;

• “General Duties Regulations” means the Merchant Shipping and Fishing Vessels (Health and Safety at Work) Regulations 1997 M2;

• “Government ship” has the meaning given in section 308(4) of the Act;

• “health and safety” includes the occupational health and safety of persons whilst on board a ship and whilst boarding or leaving the ship;

• “health surveillance” means the assessment of the state of health of a individual worker related to exposure to asbestos, which is intended to prevent, and to provide early diagnosis of, any disorder linked with exposure to asbestos;

• “ISO 17020” and “ISO 17025” mean, respectively, European Standard EN ISO/IEC 17020, “General criteria for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection” and European Standard EN ISO/IEC 17025, “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories” issued by the Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique (CENELEC), or any version of those documents which the Secretary of State considers relevant from time to time and is specified in a Merchant Shipping Notice which contains a statement to that effect;

• “limit value” means an airborne concentration of asbestos of 0.1 fibres per cm³ as a four hour time-weighted average, averaged over a continuous period of 4 hours;

• “maintenance” includes the refitting or repair of a ship;

• “Merchant Shipping Notice” means a notice described as such and issued by the MCA;

• “personal protective equipment” means all equipment (including clothing) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects that person against one or more risks to health, and any addition or accessory designed to meet that objective;

• “ship” includes hovercraft;

• “site clearance certificate for reoccupation” means a certificate issued to confirm that a ship or part of a ship where work with asbestos has been carried out has been thoroughly cleaned upon completion of that work;

• “surveyor of ships” has the meaning given by section 256(9) of the Act;

• “United Kingdom ship” means a ship which is—

  1. a

     a United Kingdom ship within the meaning of section 85(2) of the Act, or

  2. b

     a Government ship, or

  3. c

     a hovercraft registered under the Hovercraft Act 1968 M3; and

• “United Kingdom waters” means the sea or other waters within the seaward limits of the territorial sea of the United Kingdom.

Subject to paragraph (1) and regulation 3, words and expressions used in these Regulations have the same meaning as in Council Directive 83/477/EEC of 19 September 1983 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to asbestos at work (second individual Directive within the meaning of Article 8 of Directive 80/1107/EEC) M4.

In the application of these Regulations to a hovercraft, a reference to the master of a ship includes a reference to the captain of that hovercraft.