Dear sir/madam Could you please supply me with any air test monitoring certificates, pertaining to background levels of asbestos in the air at stations when trains are running. Due to the amount of asbestos supplied to the London underground during its construction by firms like Turner and Newall etc, I would like to see what kind of residue airborne asbestos fibres is present within the system especially due to the wind effect of trains within the tunnels expelling air from the tunnels into the station areas. Kind Regards

---

TfL Ref: FOI-3542-1920

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 11 February 2020 asking for information about asbestos.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations and our Information Access Policy. You asked:

Could you please supply me with any air test monitoring certificates, pertaining to background levels of asbestos in the air at stations when trains are running. Due to the amount of asbestos supplied to the London underground during its construction by firms like Turner and Newall etc, I would like to see what kind of residue airborne asbestos fibres is present within the system especially due to the wind effect of trains within the tunnels expelling air from the tunnels into the station areas.

Due to the age of the London Underground (LU), asbestos containing materials (ACMs) are present within tunnels across the network. These ACMs are re-inspected periodically and any works that may impact these ACM’s are assessed and managed by Hazardous Materials, TfL’s Engineering team.

TfL routinely appoints UKAS Accredited Consultancies to carry out reassurance monitoring for background and personal airborne asbestos fibres. This monitoring has been undertaken during operational hours and during engineering works overnight.

Due to the size of our infrastructure and the considerable amount of work that is undertaken across the network, a substantial volume of air monitoring data has been collated and all results obtained over the last 20 years have been below the applicable Health & Safety Executive (HSE) limits. However, given the extent of the information you are looking for across the entirety of your request, we are applying Regulation 12(4)(b) as we believe that the request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’ because providing the information you have requested would impose unreasonable costs on us and require an unreasonable diversion of resources.

Collating some of the information you have requested across an unrestricted period of time would be very time consuming. This is because there is no central record of all of these files. We would need to identify and liaise with various internal staff and external contractors who may hold the information requested, then manually go through a significant volume of records to identify and retrieve all the relevant documents.

The use of this exception is subject to a public interest test, which requires us to consider whether the public interest in applying the exception outweighs the public interest in disclosure. We recognise that the release of information would promote accountability and transparency in public services. However, the time it would take to provide the information you have requested would divert a disproportionate amount of our resources from its core functions and on balance we consider that the public interest currently favours the use of the exception.

However, please find below a snapshot of these results. Attached are copies of certification for reference. This air monitoring was carried out at the start & towards the end of traffic at various platforms on the Northern & Jubilee lines.

Table One	Report No.	Start of Traffic Monitoring Start/Finish Times	Fibre Conc. (f/ml)
Stations/Platforms
Swiss Cottage NB	C183236-281218-01	05:16-05:39	<0.01
Swiss Cottage SB	C183236-281218-01	05:42-06:26	<0.01
St Johns Wood NB	C183236-241218-03	05:39-06:20	<0.01
St Johns Wood SB	C183236-241218-03	05:19-06:00	<0.01
Baker Street NB	C183236-241218-04	05:42-06:22	<0.01
Baker Street SB	C183236-241218-04	05:18-05:59	<0.01
Highgate NB	C183236-281218-01	05:50-06:30	<0.01
Highgate SB	C183236-281218-01	05:26-06:06	<0.01
Archway NB	C183236-211218-01x	05:50-06:35	<0.01
Archway SB	C183236-211218-01x	05:28-06:13	<0.01
Hampstead NB	C183236-241218-02	05:56-06:36	<0.01
Hampstead SB	C183236-241218-02	05:28-06:08	<0.01
Belsize Park NB	C183236-241218-01	05:55-06:35	<0.01
Belsize Park SB	C183236-241218-01	05:30-06:10	<0.01
Chalk Farm NB	C183236-271218-02	05:56-06:39	<0.01
Chalk Farm SB	C183236-271218-02	05:41-06:22	<0.01
Camden Town NB	C183236-271218-01	05:49-06:35	<0.01
Camden Town SB	C183236-271218-01	05:53-06:37	<0.01
Kennington SB	C183236-211218-03	05:41-06:10	<0.01

Table Two	Report No.	Towards Close of Traffic Monitoring Start/Finish Times	Fibre Conc. (f/ml)
Stations/Platforms
Swiss Cottage NB	C183247/150119-01	23:05-23:45	<0.01
Swiss Cottage SB	C183247/150119-01	23:05-23:45	<0.01
St Johns Wood NB	C183247/270219-02	22:40-23:20	<0.01
St Johns Wood SB	C183247/270219-02	23:25-00:05	<0.01
Baker Street NB	C183247/250119-02	00:48-01:20	<0.01
Baker Street SB	C183247/250119-02	00:14-00:46	<0.01
Highgate NB	C183247/140119-02	22:40-23:30	<0.01
Highgate SB	C183247/140119-02	22:40-23:30	<0.01
Archway NB	C183247/130119-01	22:10-22:50	<0.01
Archway SB	C183247/130119-01	22:51-23:31	<0.01
Hampstead NB	C183247/270219-01	23:42-00:22	<0.01
Hampstead SB	C183247/270219-01	23:01-23:41	<0.01
Belsize Park NB	C183247/270219-03	22:30-23:10	<0.01
Belsize Park SB	C183247/270219-03	23:15-23:55	<0.01
Chalk Farm NB	C183247/150119-01	21:23-22:03	<0.01
Chalk Farm SB	C183247/150119-01	21:24-22:04	<0.01
Camden Town NB	C183247/140119-01	21:01-21:33	<0.01
Camden Town SB	C183247/140119-01	20:58-21:30	<0.01
Kennington SB	C183247/250119-01	22:56-23:28	<0.01

In accordance with TfL’s obligations under Data Protection legislation some information has been withheld from the attached documents, as required by Regulation 13 of the EIRs. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle of Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Melissa Nichols

FOI Case Officer

General Counsel

Transport for London

Attachments

Back to top

---