An asbestos check which was recommended in a federal government report may be mandated. This asbestos check, if implemented, will require owners of homes built before 1987 to pay up to $1,155 for an asbestos survey to be conducted if they wish to sell, rent or renovate their home. Homeowners would also be required to pass the survey results onto buyers, renters or any person involved in the home’s renovation which would likely disrupt asbestos.

This asbestos check was recommended as most homes which were built between 1945 and the early 1980s contain asbestos cement sheets. The presence of asbestos in these older homes is not surprising as Australia had the largest rate per capita of asbestos use in the world.

This recommendation for an asbestos assessment is one recommendation among many provided to the Australian government by the Asbestos Management Review, which was commissioned in October 2010. An office of asbestos safety will be established next July 2013 with the role of implementing these recommendations in an effort to make Australia asbestos free by the year 2030.

These steps toward removing asbestos from Australia are extremely important as Australia has one of the highest rates of asbestos related disease in the world. The cancer mesothelioma is one of these diseases which are caused by exposure to asbestos. In 2010 mesothelioma claimed the lives of 642 Australians. The incidence of mesothelioma in Australia is not due to peak until 2020.

Australian Tasmanian Senator Lisa Singh might have her wish come true, following promises from Quebec’s front-runner in their election to cancel the reinvigoration of Canada’s asbestos industry.

Australians were shocked early in 2012 when Canada’s Liberal government promised to lend over $56 million to the Jeffrey mine in the town of Asbestos in order to export white asbestos, a known carcinogen, to India.

But now, Quebec’s opposition party, the Parti Quebecois, has promised that if elected it will cancel the loan and ensure the Jeffrey asbestos mine remains closed.

Anti-asbestos activists are overjoyed at the news and anti-asbestos lobbies are banding together to rally support for the opposition.

Canada’s politicians have historically supported the mining of asbestos, as their asbestos industry was once the biggest worldwide. However, concern for the health impacts of asbestos exposure, which include developing asbestos related diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma, have led to global pressure to ban the use and export of asbestos, especially to developing countries such as India, where asbestos safety regulations are lax.

This global pressure came to a head in 2009, when the town of Asbestos which was closed following an international campaign that protested the use of asbestos.

Australian politicians have been urging the Australian government to protest the Quebec government’s decision to grant the loan, but the opposition being tipped to win the next Quebec election, this may no longer be necessary.

The results of a new poll commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) revealed that two-thirds of Australians want the government to guarantee the removal of asbestos from homes, schools, hospitals and workplaces by 2030. These Australians rightfully believe that asbestos is still a major health risk.

90% of people who took part in the survey also said that the presence of asbestos would influence their decision when purchasing a house. The results of this survey show that there is a strong support for the government to start implementing plans that will ensure the removal of all asbestos by 2030. Unions are set to meet this week in Sydney to begin the discussion of such plans.
The removal of asbestos in Australia is extremely important as Australia has one of the highest rates of asbestos related diseases in the world. These diseases caused by exposure to asbestos include asbestosis and the cancer mesothelioma. This is mainly due to the widespread use of asbestos at the end of World War II and the 1980s.

It is thought that every third domestic household which was built before 1982 contains asbestos thus this plan to rid Australia of asbestos by 2030 is something which is extremely necessary and believed to be by the Australian people also

The federal government is setting up a national agency which will supervise the removal of asbestos from all government and commercial buildings in Australia by 2030. This national agency comes from the government’s own recommendations set out in their asbestos management review.

Bill Shorten, Federal Workplace Relations Minister has told ABC that the government strongly believes that Australia needs a national approach to the removal of asbestos and that this job can’t be left to local and state governments. Minister Shorten believes that the establishment of an Australian national body to assist with research, education and the detection of the risks of asbestos will certainly be part of their response.

Labor’s asbestos management review which was released in August 2012 recommended a national agency be set up to implement a plan to remove and manage asbestos in government and commercial buildings in Australia by 2030. This recommendation and the fulfillment of it by the federal government came after a study was undertaken on the long term health effects of children from Wittenoom the mining town in Western Australia. This town was only 1.6km from the deadly blue-asbestos mine which ceased operation in 1966 and Wittenoom closed soon after.

The study revealed that girls up to the age of 15 who lived in Wittenoom had a higher risk of developing the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma. Boys who lived in the town from the years 1943 to 1966 when the blue-asbestos mine was in operation also had higher rates of mesothelioma and a range of other diseases. By the end of 2009 there were 215 cases of asbestos cancer in 207 former residents of Wittenoom.

There has been a great deal of asbestos compensation claims in Australia as a result of this blue asbestos mine. One tragic mesothelioma compensation claim in New South Wales involved a young lady who developed mesothelioma following exposure to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, including playing in asbestos tailings as a child.