National Asbestos
Awareness Month Campaign 1 – 30 November
Play it safe with asbestos! - Visit www.asbestosawareness.com.au - It’s not worth the risk!
On Friday 1
November, Australia’s first national Asbestos Awareness Month will be launched
to urge all Australian’s to ‘stop playing renovation roulette’ in a campaign to
fight the current wave of asbestos-related diseases caused by inhaling
dangerous asbestos fibres while renovating or maintaining homes.
And as you all may
know we are in full swing of things in the renovation front and now I am
scared!! I was up in the roof a few weeks ago and said to my partner, is this
stuff asbestos? “This stuff” is old school insulation, which I watched a show
about saying a long time ago they used to mix asbestos through it or something…
I got really scared and I think now every little thing we do with the house I
will always refer back to asbestosawareness.com.au and make sure it is right.
Don’t play
renovation roulette Australia! Visit asbestosawareness.com.au to learn where
asbestos might be in your home and how to manage it safely because it’s not
worth the risk!
That’s the warning
the Asbestos Education Committee working in partnership with the Asbestos
Diseases Research Institute is issuing during Australia’s first Asbestos
Awareness Month in November.
Australia has been
ranked among the world’s top consumers of asbestos cement products per capita
with asbestos products used in almost every brick, weatherboard, fibro or clad
home built or renovated before 1987. However, most people can’t tell whether
materials contain asbestos just by looking at them.
Asbestos can be
found under floor coverings such as carpets, linoleum and vinyl tiles, behind
wall and floor tiles, in cement floors, internal and external walls, ceilings,
eaves, garages, roofs, around hot water pipes, fences, extensions to homes,
outdoor toilets, backyard and farm sheds, chook sheds and even dog kennels. It
could be anywhere!
image sourced from wikipedia
There is no safe
level of exposure to asbestos fibres. If homeowners damage or disturb asbestos
products when renovating or maintaining their home and release fibres into the
air, they’re playing renovation roulette and putting their health and the
health of their family at risk.
With Australia
having one of the highest rates of asbestos-related diseases in the world,
unless homeowners start taking this warning seriously, the number of
Australians diagnosed with mesothelioma (an incurable asbestos-related cancer)
will continue to rise.
If left
undisturbed asbestos generally doesn’t pose a health risk. However, a 4 year
study by researcher Nola J Olsen et al showed that more than one third of women
in West Australia diagnosed with mesothelioma had a history of home renovation
with exposure to asbestos fibres as the most likely cause of their deadly
disease.
