This week is Asbestos Awareness Week in Australia. Asbestos Awareness Week provides an important reminder as we head into end of year period when people may be looking to undertake renovation or DIY work on older properties and the need to be vigilant in managing safety on site.
If you’re working on homes built before 1990, you need to assume asbestos could be present in elements such as cladding, eave sheets, electrical switchboards, internal linings and even in pipework, roofing and floor underlays.
It is vital to engage a licensed assessor for inspection and testing, and if asbestos is found, ensure it’s removed by a licensed professional.
Check out our YouTube Channel where we feature Gill’s research into the whole asbestos scandal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cocjr_xgqDI&list=PLBY81JyA5KYW_5nJ_rkFMjLpR5Be_ctHj
4,000 people are dying each and every year across Australia from exposure to Asbestos, a process which can take many years from initial exposure, as I know from personal experience, as my wife Gill died from exposure.
We launched Asbestos Awareness Australia, a charity to raise awareness and to campaign for reform. Unfortunately politicians do not want to touch this live rail, despite one in three homes containing asbestos, the fact we continue to import board containing Asbestos and the rising number of deaths from exposure among women.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
More sites have now been confirmed to have asbestos including transport infrastructure projects, primary and secondary schools, supermarkets and hospitals, according to the EPA, across NSW. The premier, Chris Minns, has said the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is examining the sites as it undertakes its largest investigation ever.
The agency on Saturday said a public school, park, and two part-built housing estates were tainted, while transport projects, a warehouse and a hospital have also been confirmed as impacted.
The activity underway to tackle exposed sites is a pimple compared with the total load in the community. But of course, agencies do not want to take the lid off that can, so individuals must become asbestos aware, that is the cornerstone of our ongoing campaign over at Asbestos Awareness Australia.
Once again, another horrifying sage of dumped asbestos turning up in the wrong place, with potentially fatal consequences.
As the Guardian reported, Asbestos has been found in additional samples of garden mulch taken from the Rozelle parklands in Sydney’s inner west, with the state government still unable to say where else in the city the contaminated material may have been used.
After an initial find, an urgent audit was under way to determine what other sites could be affected by what the premier, Chris Minns, described as “a toxic substance”. The government closed the Rozelle parklands to the public and called in contamination experts just three weeks after the park opened above the interchange.
The nearly 10 hectares of green space includes extensive cycleways and green expanses alongside large exhaust stacks for the tunnels below. The parkland was meant to appease inner west residents who had put up with years of tunnelling noises and road closures during the construction of the Rozelle interchange.
The premier said the government needed to know where potentially contaminated mulch had been used “as soon as possible” so it could close the other sites.
“I realise that is massively inconvenient during the school holidays … but we can’t muck around with safety – this is obviously a toxic substance,” Minns said.
John Holland built the interchange and the park. One of its executives, Mark Davies, said he could not immediately disclose a list of the other sites where the mulch had been used.
Over 97% of the asbestos products used in Australia was non-friable material in which the asbestos fibres were bonded by cement, vinyl, resin or other similar material. This form of asbestos product/material is often cited as quite safe unless damaged, sawn, drilled, sanded, crushed or is excessively weathered; But if any of these occur, then non-friable hard bonded asbestos products may release fibres and become friable.
In other words, bonded asbestos is not safe. Corrugated asbestos sheet roofing often shows signs of weathering. When it’s broken into smaller fragments, fibres are released. So Non-friable (bonded) asbestos has the potential to become equally as dangerous as friable asbestos, a distinction should never be made because of the type, colour or form of asbestos – all types, colours and forms of asbestos have the potential to kill people!
And her story is also told on the video I made, incorporating A Current Affair footage back in 2021.
In memory of her we continue to run Asbestos Awareness Australia, a charity Gill launched before her death, to help to raise awareness in the community of the scourge of asbestos, which still remains in about one home in three.
It kills several thousand people each year and around 800 of which are from mesothelioma in Australia. In 2022, it is estimated that there were 761 deaths from mesothelioma in Australia.
So, the legacy of Gills death is our commitment to continue to raise awareness of this pernicious product, continue to lobby Government for better reforms – Gill published a series of research papers on just this point – available from the Asbestos Awareness Australia web site, and the Quest is to ensure that ordinary Australians are better aware of the risks stemming from Asbestos.
And while its good to know that engineered stone, which has caused problems for those working in that industry is to be banned, Asbestos is the elephant in the room still killing thousands each year, and it’s in one third of homes across the country. And no, it is not just multiple exposures, one exposure to a few fibres is sufficient, and even undisturbed asbestos continues to deteriorate over time, so there is no such thing as safe asbestos if its left in situ. And it can take years for the disease to show.
Think Asbestos!
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
My thoughts on the first anniversary of Gill’s death, and what I have learnt.
We have succeeded in raising the awareness of the risks from asbestos exposure, despite the clear wish from politicians to ignore the issue, thanks to Asbestos Awareness Australia.
More than 4,000 Australians die unnecessarily each and every year due to avoidable exposure to asbestos. Yet inaction from the firms who created the problem, as well as from Governments and regulatory bodies leads to the conclusion this is probably one of the biggest and most intractable corporate scandals in Australia.
Using research from Asbestos Awareness Australia, a registered charity with the objective of raising awareness in the community, we examine how it is that companies driven by greed are able to play the system, while more people die.
The worst form of the disease is mesothelioma, a cancer which has a 5 year survivability rate of just 6.5%, the worst on the cancer scale. And yet, even short-term exposure is sufficient to cause the disease to appear years later, and those doing DIY renovations are most at risk.
Public awareness campaigns are mute, and an estimated more than one third of properties across the country (homes, businesses, and Government buildings (e.g. schools) are exposure sites. In addition to rotting old asbestos, we are still importing products contains this carcinogen.
Reform is long (60 years) over due but because of corporate capture, nothing is changing. This video explains what is going. It is a classic case study.
Around 4,000 people die each year from Asbestos related disease, including around 800 from mesothelioma, perhaps the most vile of the cancers. The asbestos ban in 2003 in Australia was ‘a significant victory for the trade union movement’ … [but] ‘unfortunately represented a story of the lack of political will by governments at Federal and State levels to act in the health interests of their community.’
Our survey of more than 43,000 Australian households found that knowledge about the following basic facts is very poor:
The level of exposure to asbestos that is dangerous.
The period of exposure to asbestos that is dangerous.
The deadliness of exposure to asbestos.4. The annual death count from asbestos-related diseases in Australia.
Most Australian households have not been properly warned about the risks and impacts of legacy asbestos, do not know that their lives are at stake, and are not using licensed asbestos professionals. Further, most Australians readily exclude themselves from any of the ‘at risk” categories and most think the death count from asbestos-related diseases each year is below 50.
Overall, the survey findings are consistent with inadequate public information, education, and warnings in Australia on asbestos threats and consequences.
Our broader research points to longstanding key messages that have been promulgated by James Hardie Industries Ltd “James Hardie”, CSR Ltd “CSR”, and the federal and state governments in Australia to downplay the risks of asbestos exposure outside of workplaces and to mask the scale of deaths from asbestos-related diseases.
Messages that are commonly portrayed within official and public health sources in Australia include the following:Half Truths or Misconceptions:
Instances of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses are rare and have peaked.
The numbers of historical deaths from asbestos-related diseases are uncertain.
Public health messaging on asbestos risks should be disseminated on a limited basis, so as not to scare the community.
Current cases of asbestos-related disease result from historical settings that no longer exist today.
The risks of asbestos-related diseases are largely confined to working-class older men.
Asbestos-related diseases require (or usually involve) intense exposure over long periods.
The risks of asbestos-related diseases are largely confined to people with occupational exposure to asbestos.
Much of the exposure of the Australian population to asbestos (and the comparative incidental exposure levels used in scientific modelling) is caused by naturally occurring asbestos.
Legacy asbestos products that are bonded or encased are safe and best left in position.
It is safer to “manage” than to remove in situ asbestos.
In this show, Asbestos Awareness Australia discusses the first eight of the above messages.
The last two claims are more complex and will be debated in a future one. We ultimately categorise these messages as misconceptions or half-truths because they are incomplete and misleading when not conveyed with proper context.
And ask yourself, why are these misconceptions are still commonly used?
Public and unequivocal acknowledgement by the industry and the federal and state governments of the continuing risks of legacy asbestos in homes, and the associated deaths arising from exposure to asbestos outside of workplace settings, would have serious repercussions. Such public recognition of the asbestos crisis would bring asbestos concerns to the forefront of the public mind.
Asbestos Awareness Australia Ltd is a registered not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, is a registered charity, and has endorsement from the Australian Taxation Office as a gift deductible recipient. The company was set up:
To enhance public awareness and knowledge of the dangers of asbestos threats.
To promote measures and policies that prevent or minimise the harms from asbestos-related diseases.
To achieve these objectives, the company provides public access to widely sourced information on asbestos risks and impacts, including the associated medical, legal, and political debates.
In the latest in our series on the health risks arising from Asbestos, we look at the scientific endeavours which have warped the truth, and excluded public debate. We use important research from Asbestos Awareness Australia.
Given that around 4,000 people in Australia die each year from exposure to Asbestos, and of that more than 800 die from the severe disease of mesothelioma, its time for fresh thinking and more specific alerts to the community, especially those undertaking DIY renovations. At least a third of all property across Australia contains highly dangerous Asbestos. Yet science is mute. And in the third wave ever more women are being impacted.
“[N]ot only was the medical profession’s reaction to the asbestos hazard often feeble, but scientists have also been among the industry’s most strident defenders. There are two reasons why that was so: corporate suppression and intimidation meant that criticism of the industry came at a price … and the convergence of the economic, political and social interests of the scientific establishment and commerce. “
Here is the full report for download and printing.
