The Australia federal government has been engaged in an investigation into the possible disturbance of asbestos during the installation of satellite dishes in more then 1700 Australian homes as part of the digital TV rollout. Last year after discovering poorly trained contractors had dislodged asbestos from 20 Australian government owned homes during installation, the government decided to suspend the Satellite Subsidy scheme and launch two reviews of the program.
The first review revealed that out of 195 Australian government owned homes, 22 had experienced asbestos disturbance during the installation of satellites. However the question of whether asbestos disturbance is linked to the satellite dish installations is still unknown because the results of the second review have still not been released. The second review was conducted on a sample of 1733 privately owned Queensland homes who had satellites installed as part of the government program. The review and results were meant to be completed in December of last year however have still not been released.
If asbestos disturbance is found to have occurred in any of those privately owned homes Queensland, the Australian government is expected to review all the remaining privately owned homes in Queensland where installation by untrained contractors occurred. The federal government has confirmed that the 22 government homes where asbestos disturbance occurred have been cleaned up to the standards of the Queensland authorities.
Any works on Australian homes built prior to the mid 1980’s could involve the disturbing of asbestos, simply because in Australian homes built prior to this time, asbestos was often used as part of the construction. Home renovators in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have pursued asbestos compensation claims following home renovator type asbestos exposure. Any exposure to asbestos can lead to one developing the asbestos related condition mesothelioma. Australia has one of the highest incidences of mesothelioma in the world per capita.
