Australia’s Ongoing Challenge of Legacy Asbestos in the Built Environment: A Review of Contemporary Asbestos Exposure Risks

Abstract

Asbestos remains ubiquitous in the Australian built environment. Of the 13 million tonnes of asbestos products installed in earlier decades, an estimated 50% remain in situ today. Because of the extensive past use of asbestos, and the increasing age of these products, the potential for exposure to asbestos fibres in both indoor and outdoor environments remains high, even while the actual asbestos exposure levels are mostly very low. Sources of these exposures include disturbance of in situ asbestos-containing materials (ACMs), for example during renovations or following disaster events such as fires, cyclones and floods. Our understanding of the risk of asbestos-related disease arising from long-term low-level or background exposure, however, is poor. We provide the most up-to-date review of asbestos exposure risks currently affecting different groups of the Australian population and the settings in which this can manifest. From this, a need for low-level asbestos monitoring has emerged, and further research is required to address whether current exposure monitoring approaches are adequate. In addition, we make the case for proactive asbestos removal to reduce the risk of ongoing asbestos contamination and exposure due to deteriorating, disturbed or damaged ACMs, while improving long-term building sustainability, as well as the sustainability of limited resources.

Managing Asbestos Waste Using Technological Alternatives to Approved Deep Burial Landfill Methods: An Australian Perspective

“…Asbestos was completely banned in Australia from 31 December 2003, but an estimated 4000 Australians still die annually from asbestos-related diseases [6]. This is due to the large amounts of legacy ACMs remaining in our built environment which have reached the end of their product life and are deteriorating, posing exposure risks in a number of different scenarios [7]. Given the growing ACM waste stream (described in detail in [3]), and that managing the asbestos-related public health challenges continues to be a concern [6][7][8], achieving the effective waste management strategic actions of the Asbestos National Strategic Plan is important in tackling the development of avoidable and life-threatening asbestos-related diseases [4].…”