Renovators next asbestos victims

MANY Bundaberg residents are living close to a product that could kill them if it is handled wrongly.

Asbestos Identification Services owner Paul McKeone said many workplaces and houses in the city built before 1990 would have asbestos in the walls or ceilings.

Mr McKeone was commenting after Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union president Paul Bastian told a national asbestos summit in Sydney that home renovators were emerging as the latest group of people with deadly asbestos-related diseases.

“It's estimated that asbestos is still present in more than one million Australian homes,” Mr Bastian said.

The summit called on the federal government to establish an independent National Asbestos Unit, which would be responsible for an Australia-wide approach to removing asbestos.

“We have building certificates, we have pest certificates, we have pool certificates — there is no reason we can't introduce an asbestos safety certificate on the sale or purchase of any property in the country,” Mr Bastian said.

Mr McKeone said asbestos was a more pervasive problem than people realised, even after all the publicity about mesothelioma-related deaths caused by exposure to the material.

“It's very common to find it in houses. It's fairly harmless if left well alone,” he said.

But he said if the asbestos was broken or renovators started removing it without proper precautions was when it became dangerous.