Companies involved with Tasmania’s National Broadband Network (NBN) have been asked to stop working as asbestos concerns have been raised regarding Telstra’s pits.
Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) representative David Mier has suggested that around eighty five percent of the people employed to work in the pits have not received adequate asbestos safety training.
Mier has urged the contractors to stop working on the pits until they have received the required training. This is to ensure the safety of not only the workers, but the general public as well. Mier has stated that “Kids wagging school or little kids just playing, they just jump in [the pits] thinking it’s a sandpit.”
Comcare, the workplace safety “watchdog”, has confirmed it is currently investigating asbestos-related issues for the Telstra pits. Comcare is collaborating with NBN and Telstra to ameliorate the safety of workers and to increase asbestos awareness issues.
Any exposure to asbestos can result in the development of asbestos related conditions. There have been cases of where persons who cut telephone asbestos conduits going to develop mesothelioma. Mesothelioma in Australia is a real threat and to decrease the chance of someone developing mesothelioma in Australia, precautions should be taken to ensure exposure is prevented, or at the very least, minimized.
