Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

The Australian government has made a sweeping declaration regarding the safety of certain types of asbestos that may have a wide-reaching effect on how disease management and mesothelioma lawsuits proceed in that country in the future.  An independent group was established to examine the safety of bonded asbestos.  While the Australian government has already banned products that contained bonded asbestos (2003) it’s official position was that the materials were at least safer than other types of the material.

However, the results of the Asbestos Management Review clearly show that bonded asbestos is more dangerous now than it ever was.

Bonded asbestos refers to asbestos that has been combined, or bonded, with other materials such as resin or cement.  It was thought that because the asbestos was essentially trapped in these materials and could not become airborne that these materials could remain in place with only monitoring and upkeep.  However, this new report shows that asbestos particles can still become airborne when present in bonded form.

The real danger there is that airborne asbestos can be inhaled or ingested causing deadly and incurable diseases such as lung cancer and mesothelioma.

This change in official policy is a welcome one.  Australia has one of the highest new diagnosis rates for asbestos in the world.  In fact, some experts don’t expect the number of new cases to peak until 2015.  That’s nearly forty years after the government took an active roll in the limitation of asbestos use.

One of the major reasons behind the change in the official policy is that the review board found the increasing number of natural disasters and violent storms, including hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding, can significantly damage bonded asbestos.  Not only do these naturally occurring incidents distribute this harmful material far from where it was originally located, they can break these materials down, making the danger of becoming airborne much higher.

Geoff Fary, chairman of the Asbestos Review Board, said that the continued use of asbestos needs to be curbed.  The risk to those employed in disaster clean-up and the general public is far too great to allow bonded asbestos to be classified as anything but dangerous.

The report is one of the first steps in Australia’s groundbreaking charge to become completely asbestos free by the year 2030.

Professor Bogda Koczwara, President of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia, agrees that a stronger stance is good.  He says that action and awareness concerning the potential risk from in-place asbestos is the key to mitigating any potential danger. 

Mesothelioma, he adds,  "is a highly lethal cancer with very poor survival.  Yet many people don’t realise they are exposing themselves to asbestos when they pull up their lino floors or recover relics from their flooded home.”

Unfortunately, because the crocidolite industry was so prevalent in Australia, the amount of in-place asbestos (bonded or otherwise) still lurking in wait may reach into the billions of tons.  Still, one step toward being asbestos-free is one step toward being mesothelioma free.