Sunshine residents are putting pressure on the Brimbank Council in Victoria in regards to what should be done with land near the Kororoit Creek. Local residents are insisting that the land be gifted to them instead of rezoned.

This request comes after an environmental audit report revealed that the parcel of land on Fraser Street right next to the Creek contained asbestos. The report also showed that the asbestos is not a health risk to people who use the area as long as thick grass continued to cover the land.

Last year Melbourne Water applied to the council to have this 3034sq block at 113 Fraser St rezoned. Proposing to turn the current public park and recreation zone into Residential 1 which will allow it to be sold to developers.

The discovery of asbestos at this site has caused fear in local residents as they are concerned about the risk of asbestos exposure if Melbourne Water is permitted to develop the land. Residents are insisting that land be gifted to them and kept as open space for families who live in the area.

Despite these fears Melbourne Water are still working with the council to try and get their proposal on public exhibition. They have said that the land is safe for development and they have plans in place to manage the asbestos.

The fear of local residents is not surprising as exposure to asbestos is a health risk and a known cause of asbestos related diseases including the cancer mesothelioma, asbestosis and asbestos related pleural disease. Australian asbestos related compensation claims, such as mesothelioma compensation claims, have been made in circumstances where the individual who developed the asbestos related condition was exposed to low levels of asbestos. Asbestos compensation claims in Victoria are determined by a Jury.

Work has been stopped for the second time at the high-rise development site at Barangaroo in Sydney due to fears of asbestos.

A significant amount of crumbled asbestos that had been run over by heavy trucks and machinery was discovered by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) at the site on Monday 25 June 2012.

After this discovery, around 40 people who were digging at the southern part of the site where the asbestos was found walked off the job.

Work at this part of the NSW site is not set to resume and an update on the situation will be delivered to all staff in a meeting on Tuesday.

Earlier this year in April, the CFMEU said that the area was contaminated with a variety of harmful chemicals including asbestos. This asbestos fear saw 150 workers removed from the Sydney construction site.

Small amounts of expsoure to asbestos can result in a person developing an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma. Thus it is important to protect such workers from asbestos to elimiate the risk of mesothelioma.

British rail in the UK has paid the family of a former Swindon railway worker £60,000 in compensation for his death.

Mr Smith died in November 2010 from asbestos related cancer; he worked for British Rail for 26 years and during this time was continuously exposed to asbestos. His job over these years was to plaster white asbestos over steam boilers.

Many others who worked along side Mr Smith have also passed away from asbestos related diseases such as mesothelioma.

Asbestos exposure was common for these rail workers in the past and it has been reported that in Swindon alone, around 107 people have died from asbestos related illness in the last three years.

These rail workers are certainly not the only ones who were exposed to asbestos. In Australia for a large part of the 1900s, asbestos was used widely all around the country.

Asbestos was used in so many manufactured goods thus exposure spread to many people from different occupations including railway workers. Asbestos was used in the manufacture of trains, the brakes and clutches were often themselves made from asbestos materials.

This exposure to asbestos in the past has been a major health risk for so many rail workers around the world, including Australia. This exposure to asbestos can see these rail workers develop asbestos related diseases just like Phillip Smith did including the disease mesothelioma.

There have been many asbestos compensation claims in Australia form former railway workers.

It is noted that in South Australia, there is a memorial to all those who died from asbestos conditions, including mesothelioma, at Jack Watkins park located on the site of the old Islington Railway Yard. Like in other states, asbestos compensation in South Australia, including mesothelioma compensation, has been paid to former South Australian railway workers who developed asbestos conditions such as mesothelioma.

The management and removal of asbestos has been given priority in parts of Queensland as a result of Dr Bruce Flegg, the Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works, requesting a long-term plan to be formulated for the management and removal of asbestos from all Government buildings in Queensland.

Exposure to asbestos is a serious health risk as it can lead to asbestos-related diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Dr Flegg has confirmed asbestos to be present within government buildings in Queensland including public housing. He confirms what is needed to reduce future contamination and exposure to asbestos is a variety of targeted strategies.

Included in this new approach are new strategies for managing and controlling asbestos in government houses and workplaces and cost-effective solutions for removing and disposing of all asbestos materials.

Dr Flegg has recognized that mesothelioma cases are expected to rise within the next 10 years due to the high level of asbestos which was used in the past. He is committed to taking steps to reducing the rise of mesothelioma by implementing these strategies that will reduce to risk of future contamination and exposure to asbestos. The longer nothing is done the more people are at risk, thus these strategies must be implemented for the health of all people living in Queensland.

Queensland mesothelioma compensation claims have been commenced in the past following a person contracting mesothelioma as a result of exposure to relatively small amounts of asbestos.