Key Points
- Asbestos-contaminated mulch has been found at 25 locations in Sydney, with seven schools to be tested.
- NSW Premier Chris Minns has said he won’t shut all parks just yet as the state doesn’t have the resources.
- The once-popular building material has been banned in Australia since 2003.
Asbestos-tainted mulch is urgently being tested at seven Sydney schools after being found in 25 locations across Sydney, with hundreds of sites potentially contaminated.
Already, 200 sites have been tested with hundreds more expected to require inspection.
The NSW Environmental Protection Agency has urged people to avoid mulched garden beds across Sydney parks and said testing is underway at the schools identified.
“This is precautionary testing only. Schools have made individual risk assessments based on the amount of mulch on site, with the majority remaining open and one school choosing to close,” a statement by the EPA read.
In an email seen by SBS News, Allambie Heights Public School advised parents that the playground was cordoned off and made inaccessible to staff and students while testing occurs.
St Luke’s Catholic College in Marsden Park chose to keep students away on Friday due to the amount of mulch across its campus.
Other schools being tested include International Grammar School in Ultimo, Mt Annan Christian College, North Sydney Public School, Penrith Christian School and Westmead Christian Grammar School.
Liverpool West Public School was closed this week after mulch there tested positive for asbestos.
Asbestos — a once-popular building material that has been banned since 2003 — “should have never found its way in there”, says Peter Tighe, chair of the Asbestos and Dust Diseases Research Institute.
Here’s your quick guide to asbestos, where it’s been found in Sydney, why it’s dangerous, and what authorities are doing about it.
What is asbestos?
Asbestos is the name given to six minerals that occur naturally in the environment as bundles of fibres that can be separated into thin, durable threads that are 50-200 times thinner than human hair.
Asbestos is resistant to heat, fire, and chemicals and does not conduct electricity.
For these reasons, it was widely used as a building material in Australia between the 1940s and the 1980s, before the serious health problems it caused came to light and its use was banned in 2003.
Australia was “one the largest per capita users of asbestos” and a lot of it is still in our building environment, Tighe says.
There are two kinds of asbestos.
Friable asbestos is more dangerous and can be crumbled or reduced to a powder when it’s dry.
Bonded asbestos, also known as non-friable asbestos, is encased in a material and is typically less dangerous — unless it’s broken down into asbestos fibre.
Both friable and bonded asbestos have reportedly been found across Sydney, although it is reportedly mostly the latter
Why is asbestos being found in so many parks?
Asbestos-laden mulch was first found at the Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner west in January. Since then, it has been detected in at least 25 sites across NSW.
The contaminated sites include parks, infrastructure project sites, rail corridors, a school, a supermarket and two hospitals. Some residential properties are also due to be tested after receiving the product from landscapers.
Asbestos-contaminated mulch was also found at Victoria Park in Sydney’s inner west, which prompted organisers of the and at Liverpool West Secondary School in southwest Sydney.
A major investigation continues into how pieces of bonded asbestos, mostly about the size of a coin, ended up in the commercially sold mulch.
The mulch found at the 25 sites is recycled mulch and has been supplied by Greenlife Resource Recovery.
The company said its testing showed mulch stockpiled at its facility was free of asbestos contamination and it was confident the material was clean when delivered to contractors for landscaping.
“The company has no visibility of, and does not control, how its mulch is used on a site once delivered…GRRF has no control over whether its products are mixed with other mulches, materials or existing soil that has been disturbed,” a statement posted on Greenlife Resource Recovery’s website read.
“Further, GRRF understands that many of the government projects and sites on which its mulch has been used and asbestos has been identified were going through or have gone through processes of remediation.
“GRRF understands in many cases this remediation was to address historical contamination with substances likely to be present including asbestos.”
How dangerous is asbestos?
Asbestos is extremely fibrous and the tiny fibres are easily breathed in where they can become trapped in the lungs.
Exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing forms of cancer including lung, ovarian and mesothelioma — the lung lining which is almost exclusively linked to asbestos exposure.
Whilst many who’ve developed health problems from inhaling asbestos had prolonged exposure, people can develop asbestos-related illnesses after even briefly inhaling asbestos fibres, and even in outdoor settings.
“There’s no minimum exposure,” says Dr Tom John, a Medical Oncologist at the Peter McCallum Cancer Centre. “You can have a minor exposure and still develop cancer.”
Asbestos was a popular building material until it was found to cause serious health problems. Source: AAP / Paul Sancya
NSW Health said on Friday that the risk to human health remained low if asbestos was bonded and not disturbed.
“It’s important to remember that asbestos primarily causes illness when little fibres that are very small, are breathed in,” senior health official Jeremy McAnulty said on Friday.
“The risk is higher, the more you breathe in over longer periods of time.”
How is the NSW government responding?
Contact tracing teams are working to find potential sites containing the contaminated mulch but NSW Premier Chris Minns said resourcing issues prevented the government from closing all parks before they were tested.
“Not every projected park is testing positive to asbestos, but to lock every single park or school or hospital up would be beyond our resources right now,” he said.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car said the clean-up would take longer than expected because the mulch had been incorrectly placed.
The state Opposition has called for a searchable central register, similar to a contact tracing database, of all sites under investigation for possible asbestos contamination.
“The public has a right to know if playgrounds and public spaces in their suburbs are under investigation for asbestos contamination,” Opposition environment spokeswoman Kellie Sloane said in a statement.
A multi-agency task force was set up on Thursday night to deal with the unfolding crisis. It includes representatives from the NSW Asbestos Coordination Committee, Safework NSW, Local Government NSW as well as fire, health and education officials.
“We will continue to have incidents like this unless we get programs of removal,” says Tighe.
“The government should subsidise the removal, and ensure the cost of removal is kept to the lowest it can be.”
– Additional reporting by AAP
Source Agencies
