“Revelations that asbestos products and materials are making their way into Australia is deeply concerning.” Trevor Torrens, General Manager of ADSS said.
The most recent breach has come from USG Boral following testing conducted on raw vermiculite imported from China which detected asbestos fibre contamination. Asbestos has also previously been detected in imported children’s crayons, remote control cars and aircraft, manual pallet trucks, billiard table irons, bee-hive smokers, acetylene cylinders and after-market gaskets.
The importation of asbestos containing products has been banned since 2003.
Most of the imports are from China, where material is defined as “asbestos free” if it contains up to 5 percent asbestos. “This not only puts workers at risk but the whole community.” said Mr Torrens.
“For anyone who thinks asbestos-related diseases are a thing of the past, think again.”
“Every year in Australia, there are an estimated 4,000 deaths from past exposure to asbestos. That’s one of the highest death rates of asbestos-related diseases in the world.” said Mr Torrens.
ADSS is calling on the Federal Government to create a specialist unit within Border Force focused on stopping illegal asbestos imports. This was a recommendation of the 2018 Senate Inquiry into Non-conforming building products: the need for coherent and robust regulatory regime. The recommendation was not implemented.
“The USG Boral issue is troubling”. Mr Torrens said. “Not only have these workers been exposed, but they have potentially taken it home to their family on their clothes”.
A statement from the company says, “asbestos contamination found in the vermiculite ingredient itself are very low…”. However, Chair of ADSS, Mr Phil Blair said, “The level of asbestos fibre contamination is irrelevant. There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos fibres. This is endorsed by no less than the World Health Organisation.”
“We have enough asbestos materials still in our community from our past misguided love affair of this stuff – we certainly don’t need anymore.” Mr Blair said.
When asbestos fibres get into the lungs, which can occur if the asbestos product is disturbed or in a friable condition, it can cause deadly conditions like mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung and other cancers. Known as the latency period, these diseases can take many decades to develop.
The Asbestos Disease Support Society is a registered charity and was established in 1992 to support sufferers of asbestos related disease, their families and caregivers and promotes awareness about the risks of exposure to asbestos.
