Tas schools’ asbestos sand saga: Staff told to handle toxic material without PPE
Education officials have admitted it was a ‘mistake’ for failing to tell school staff to wear protective gear while handling sand contaminated with asbestos in Tasmanian schools.
Tasmania’s education minister has come under fire for encouraging school staff to physically handle and bag coloured sand potentially laced with asbestos, but failed to advise them to use personal protective equipment (PPE) while doing so.
Australian Education Union Tasmania said the guidance, sent to schools on Friday, November 14, was lifted almost word-for-word from the ACCC recall notice except for omitting crucial instructions directing staff to wear disposable gloves, a P2 mask and protective eyewear.
The union has also lashed the department for failing to provide any PPE to schools when they were expected to handle contaminated sand.
Education department secretary Ginna Webster said two recall notices had been issued and the Department had repeated the instructions from one of them, which did not include the advice about PPE.
“I can’t explain why we’ve lifted one and not the other, but I think that is what is simply happened,” she said.
“It’s a mistake and we would absolutely looking at that in hindsight. That is my responsibility as Secretary of the Department.
“We were working on advice that we had at the time. We were trying to push the information out, no doubt, quickly, to staff.
Ms Palmer told estimates: “In hindsight, yes, I would have preferred that stronger language ... I think it’s the other one that referred to wearing gloves and a mask.”
AEU state manager Brian Wightman said the Minister’s response was unacceptable.
“Low risk does not mean safe. Failing to instruct staff to wear PPE while handling asbestos-contaminated material is negligent by any standard,” Mr Wightman said.
“This omission exposed educators and school staff to a completely avoidable hazard and it happened on the Minister’s watch.”
“When asbestos is involved, there is no margin for error. Educators deserved clear safety directions from the start but the Minister has yet again failed in her duty of care as their employer.”
The union said educators were questioning why staff were still being asked to attend shuttered schools deemed unsafe for students.
“Everyone knows sand goes everywhere,” Mr Wightman said.
“Educators are saying the sand has been spread to ‘every crevice’ of their schools, not just the rooms it was used in. We are concerned the Minister is continuing to downplay a very serious safety issue and continuing to needlessly place staff in danger.”
“We would expect the Minister to take the strongest possible precautions to protect everyone in schools, and only allow staff and students in schools where it has been confirmed, on a case-by-case basis, that the contamination has not spread.”
Minister: Response ‘calm and responsible’
Earlier, the minister Education Minister Jo Palmer has defended the speed of her department’s response to reports of asbestos-contaminated sand in government schools.
More than 30 state schools are fully or partially closed on Wednesday because of the presence of children’s coloured sand products that have been found to contain naturally occurring asbestos.
Schools were advised on Friday of the issue. Ms Palmer first spoke publicly on Tuesday to announce closures
She said the department’s response had been “calm and responsible”.
“I do want to emphasise that the advice that we’ve received from the very beginning of this alert from the ACCC last week has always maintained that the actual risk to students, staff, and families is low, and I believe the wording is now moving towards very low,” she said.
“So the actions that we are undertaking are certainly very much of that precautionary nature.
“Now I will say that as soon as we received the notification from the ACCC, we certainly followed the advice from the ACCC.
“We’ve taken the advice that we have in Tasmania and had a measured, and I would say, a calm and a responsible response to that advice.”
Department of Education Secretary Ginna Webster said the department had acted as soon as the advice was received.
“The ACCC issued the notice, and on the Friday the 14th, the Department provided advice to schools and Child and Family Learning Centres and our other business units relating to that advice and advising to follow the advice from the ACCC and we advised them to take the steps that were outlined in that ACCC advice,” she said.
Labor leader Josh Willie said the state school system had acted much more slowly than independent schools.
“Within a Tasmanian context, Minister, the response was slow,” he said.
“Once WorkSafe updated the advice … you saw schools in the Catholic and independent sectors act straight away – and we had a delayed response from the state system,” Mr Willie said.
“Were you pushing back on WorkSafe’s advice? It seemed yesterday in your press release in the morning, you were relying on other advice: you pointed out the federal health advice saying that the health risk is low.
“You’ve talked about ACCC. Why? Why didn’t you act on WorkSafe advice like the other sectors?”
Mrs Palmer said the response had been appropriate.
“I think it’s important to remember that, first of all, we are dealing with a low-risk situation. This is not an emergency situation,” she said.
“We did not get information from WorkSafe, the ACCC or the Commonwealth Department of Health or our own health officials to say that this was high risk.
“If it had been high risk, then it would have warranted a completely different response.
“If it had been at medium risk, I think we would have had a very different response. But all the advice we were getting is that this is low risk.”
Speaking to journalists at Ravenswood Community Health Centre on Wednesday morning, federal Lyons MP Rebecca White, who is also assistant health minister, said she was very concerned the product had been available for as long as it had been.
“The most important thing at this time is to provide clear information so people can make the right choice about how to handle this product if they’ve got it in their home and also so our school communities can respond appropriately.”
She said the ACCC was working to provide information to state jurisdictions and retailers on how to respond to the incident.
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Originally published as Tas schools’ asbestos sand saga: Staff told to handle toxic material without PPE
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