Asbestos was used in Australian buildings for most of the twentieth century, and a great deal of it is still in place. Nothing about it looks hazardous. It can be painted over, walked on, or drilled into without giving anything away. Renovations, repairs, and demolition work are where it catches people out. Australian law sets out who may touch it, which tools may be used on it, and where it has to end up. A career spent in and around older buildings can end with your lungs as clear as they started.
What is Asbestos?
Asbestos is the name for six naturally occurring minerals that are found in rocks and soil as fibres. They share resistance to heat, fire, and chemicals, add strength to cement, and they were cheap to mine and mill.
Asbestos use dates back to the 1880s, and by the middle of the twentieth century Australia had one of the highest rates of asbestos use per person in the world. Most of that consumption went through asbestos manufacturing plants making cement products. Asbestos cement accounts for the bulk of what remains today.
Asbestos was mined in Australia until 1984 and used in more than 3,000 products. A national ban on asbestos took effect on 31 December 2003. Australian law makes no distinction between the six, and all of them are covered by the ban.
Types of Asbestos
The six minerals sold as asbestos fall into two families. Chrysotile is the only member of the serpentine family. Its fibres are curly and flexible, and the use of chrysotile asbestos accounted for the large majority of asbestos used worldwide. In Australia it went mostly into cement products.
Amphibole asbestos covers the remaining five. Amosite and crocidolite were the two put to commercial use here. Tremolite, anthophyllite, and actinolite appeared mostly as contaminants in other minerals rather than as products in their own right. Amphibole fibres are straight, stiff, and needle-shaped.
Where is Asbestos Found and What Products are Associated with Asbestos?
Asbestos can be found in buildings and structures put up or renovated before 1990. It is estimated to be in one in three Australian homes. Asbestos containing materials appear as wall and ceiling linings and as backing sheets behind tiles in bathrooms, laundries, and kitchens. Vinyl floor tiles, the paper backing under vinyl sheet flooring, textured ceiling coatings, and the boards behind old electrical switchboards were all made with asbestos as well.
Asbestos cement was also used in building materials such as flat wall sheeting, corrugated roofing, fencing, eaves, guttering, downpipes, and flue pipes. Water and drainage mains were made from the same material. Sheds and garages from the fibro era can be built from almost nothing else.
Insulation products account for much of the remaining risk of asbestos in commercial and industrial buildings. Lagging around pipes, boilers, and hot water services, insulation boards in ceilings and partitions, and sprayed coatings on structural steel were manufactured with it.
Asbestos Exposure and Its Impact on Your Body
Exposure to asbestos happens when fibres are released into the air and breathed in. Cutting, drilling, sanding, snapping, or water blasting an asbestos material sends asbestos dust into the space around it. An asbestos fibre has no smell and is far too small to see, and airborne asbestos can stay suspended for hours after the work has stopped.
Inhaled fibres are drawn into the deepest part of your lungs and become lodged in the tissue and slowly cause scarring. They cannot dissolve or be coughed out. The scarring stiffens lung tissue, causing them to hold less air so that every breath takes more effort. Breathlessness, chest tightness, and a lasting cough follow. No cure exists and there is no established safe level of exposure.
All six forms of asbestos can cause cancer in humans. Exposure to asbestos raises your risk of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen, along with lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and cancer of the larynx. Mesothelioma can take around 50 years to develop, with recorded cases from 10 to 60 years afterwards.
Working with Asbestos Products
Asbestos material is classed under work health and safety laws as either non-friable or friable. Non-friable asbestos is also called bonded asbestos, and its fibres can be found inside cement or resin. Friable asbestos is asbestos that is powdery when dry or can be crumbled by hand pressure.
Bonded asbestos that is sealed and undamaged presents a low risk of asbestos exposure and can be left where it is. However, cracked, weathered, or broken sheeting can release fibres, as can materials such as pipe lagging and sprayed coatings shed fibres as they deteriorate without anyone touching them. Work health and safety laws require an asbestos register at any workplace in a building put up before 31 December 2003. The register lists every asbestos-containing material identified on the site, along with its location and condition, who is responsible for it, what will be done to any material that deteriorates, and the date of the next review.
Generally, removing asbestos is licensed work. A Class A licence covers every form of asbestos in any quantity, while a Class B licence covers non-friable asbestos above ten square metres. Below ten square metres, non-friable asbestos may be removed without a licence, provided the material is wetted, hand tools are used instead of power tools, disposable coveralls and a half-face respirator with a P1 or P2 filter are worn, and the waste is double bagged and sealed. Exceptions exist in some states and territories.
What To Do When Exposed to Asbestos
Stop work the moment you suspect asbestos has been disturbed, and stop anyone working alongside you. Leave the debris where it fell. Do not sweep it, brush it, or lift it with a household vacuum cleaner. If dust has settled on your clothing, stay where you are and call for help rather than walking through the building. Otherwise, leave the area by the shortest route, shut the door behind you, and switch off any fan or air conditioning serving the space. Keep everyone else out until the area has been assessed.
Take off any contaminated clothing carefully, seal it in heavy plastic, and shower before you go anywhere else. Disposable coveralls, gloves, and the bag they go into are disposed of as asbestos waste. Tell your supervisor or the person in charge of the site straight away.
Record the event on the National Asbestos Exposure Register. It is a voluntary Australian Government register, and your account of the exposure stays available to you for the rest of your life. Tell your GP as well, and the exposure enters your medical record. Not everyone who has encountered asbestos develops an asbestos related disease.
Stay Safe With White Card Training
Asbestos harm cannot be undone once fibres have been inhaled. Prevention is the only treatment available. Asbestos remains in enough Australian buildings that an employer cannot put a worker onto construction work without general construction induction training. With our white card course you can pick the hazards out of an older site and report them to the person in charge. Your lungs keep the record of every job you ever worked, and enrolling now is what keeps that record clean.
FAQs
What is Asbestos Cement?
Asbestos cement is a mix of Portland cement and asbestos fibres, moulded while wet and left to cure hard.
Can a Test Confirm Past Asbestos Exposure?
No. A chest x-ray cannot show whether asbestos fibres have been inhaled, and imaging picks up disease only once it has developed.
Can Asbestos Be Found in Cars?
Yes. Vehicles manufactured before 2004 can contain asbestos in brake pads, brake shoes, clutch linings, and engine gaskets, and wear leaves asbestos dust on those components and the parts around them.
