Why asbestos mulch crisis is just the tip of a lethal iceberg

The scattering of tonnes of asbestos-contaminated mulch throughout Sydney’s schools, playgrounds and parks has been an accident waiting to happen. With an estimated 6.4 million tonnes of asbestos in Australia’s built environment and no coordinated incentives for households and contractors to dispose of asbestos safely, recurring crises like this are inevitable.

For parents, the prospect of their children playing in an environment of cancer-causing fibres is understandably alarming; the consequent political reaction to launch a massive and expensive cleanup is predictable.

Asbestos danger sign at Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner westCredit: Dion Georgopoulos

But this latest asbestos scare is just the tip of the iceberg. More are inevitable without a coherent national strategy to clean up the legacy of rogue companies like James Hardie, whose extraordinary growth saw Australia become the world’s biggest per capita user of asbestos cement.

Hardie itself dumped thousands of tonnes around its capital city factories – at Camellia, in Parramatta, as well as Melbourne’s Sunshine, Perth’s Welshpool, Brisbane’s Newstead and Adelaide’s Elizabeth. In areas surrounding these factories, people used Hardie waste to line their garages and driveways; the former market gardeners around Dural had paths made from asbestos tailings, which left a trail of the cancer mesothelioma in their wake.

Significantly, when Bernie Banton and Greg Combet struck their landmark compensation deal in 2007 for the company to continue paying its asbestos victims after its relocation to the Netherlands, Hardie insisted that remediation of its former waste sites was specifically excluded.

While the mulch in your local park might be a cause for concern, why look so far afield? Take a good look at your own house or your child’s school.

An estimated one in three Australian houses have asbestos present. It’s in the eaves, under the floor, in the switchboard, in the ceiling, in garage walls and fences… And while the focus is currently on mulch in the school playgrounds, what about the school buildings themselves? Hundreds, if not thousands, of schools still have asbestos cement walls, eaves and ceilings.

The late Bernie Banton (right) and then secretary of the ACTU, Greg Combet led the campaign against James Hardie Industries on behalf of workers who had contracted asbestos-related diseases. Banton died in 2007.Credit: Rob Homer

Don’t be fooled by the expert reassurances that only friable, or dusty, asbestos is dangerous. It’s true that dust is the danger: inhaling the microscopic particles of asbestos dust can decades later result in the deadly cancers caused by asbestos, and no safe level of exposure has yet to be identified.

Non-friable or bonded asbestos, we are told, is safe. That’s true, assuming the glue still bonds the fibres and it remains undisturbed. But asbestos cement manufacturing in Australia ceased in the mid-1980s. That means the asbestos fibre cement in our buildings is now between 40 and 100 years old, and its bonding agent no longer glues the fibres together effectively. Tests around the world have demonstrated that such old asbestos cement is now past its used-by date. The bonding is no longer effective, and when the fibro is exposed to the wind and rain, it sheds fibres that scatter through the surrounding environment.

So the next time you walk past a decaying corrugated roof or fence, hold your breath! In Perth, where there are kilometres of Super Six fences, even the dogs contract mesothelioma – from scratching the fences and breathing the dust.

We have a major national problem requiring a coordinated, whole-of-government response to deal with it.

Governments must provide free asbestos disposal sites and incentives so builders and others no longer dump the waste wherever they can. For those who protest that the cost would be prohibitive – what is the cost of the current remediation of schools, parks and playgrounds, and future clean-ups, let alone the potential cost in the lives of those exposed today who might die in 30 years?

There is such a response, developed over the past decade by the federal government’s Asbestos and Silica Safety & Eradication Agency (ASSEA). Its draft Third National Strategic Plan is currently with minister Tony Burke, following years of consultations with stakeholders, including government agencies, local councils, unions, asbestos community groups and others.

It is due to be considered by the next meeting of the relevant state and territory ministers. If adopted, it will mean that Australia will finally have a coordinated action response to deal with an ongoing national tragedy, to identify, then remove all asbestos from our built environment in prioritised order according to risk, and dispose of it safely.

The cost of doing so will be cheaper than the continuing expense of piecemeal cleanups and closures every time the media discovers another asbestos hazard, not to mention the ongoing health costs to the victims of asbestos.

As the country that once had the world’s highest usage of asbestos cement, we need to seize this opportunity to rid ourselves of a scourge that currently claims 4,000 Australian lives every year.

Matt Peacock is a former ABC journalist and director. His book Killer Company exposed how James Hardie concealed an asbestos tragedy likely to kill or maim an estimated 20,000 Australians.