The Australian government has established a new organisation to manage an Australia wide approach to deal with asbestos safely.

The Australian Office of Asbestos Safety will be formed as a response to recommendations contained in the Asbestos Management Review, an Australian inquiry into the use and management of asbestos in Australia, which was released in June this year.

Australian Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Bill Shorten, who has shown his support on asbestos initiative throughout the year, announced the creation of the Office of Asbestos Safety to remedy the lack of a nationally coordinated approach to the issue of asbestos, as highlighted in the Asbestos Management Review.

This is the first time in Australia that Commonwealth, State and Territory governments will work together on an Australia wide strategic plan to battle asbestos and the dreadful conditions that are associated with it, such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. It is great to see states such as New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia all working together to try and stop asbestos related conditions like pleural mesothelioma and asbestos related pleural disease.

Australia used to have the highest use of asbestos per capita worldwide, so it is about time that Australian policy is updated to combat the consequent implications, such as increasing cases of asbestos compensation claims, including mesothelioma compensation claims and asbestosis compensation claims.

Australia’s Federal Government has decided to spend $7 million creating new jobs for Barangaroo workers, despite the recent asbestos controversies surrounding the Sydney project.

Over 3,000 new apprenticeships and construction jobs are being introduced to the Sydney site to provide more opportunities for older and indigenous Australians.

However, many are concerned that the introduction of so many new jobs will only increase the number of people at risk of asbestos exposure unless asbestos regulations are tightened. This could then increase the occurrence of asbestos related conditions such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Lend Lease’s management of the huge Sydney project has already come under scrutiny several times this year. Asbestos has been discovered by NSW’s CFMEU, which resulted in Australian workers walking off the job to protect themselves from asbestos exposure, and also by NSW’s Environment Protection Authority last week, where chunks of asbestos was found in soil taken from the Sydney site.

Australia’s Skills Minister Chris Evans told the ABC that the monitoring of asbestos at the Sydney site was up to NSW authorities, not the Australian government.

Small amounts of exposure to asbestos can result in conditions such as pleural mesothelioma, being the asbestos cancer that is most well known in Australia thanks to the great campaigning by persons such as Bernie Banton.

New research from Western Australia has shown that mesothelioma and asbestosis are not the only diseases asbestos victims should be worried about.

The Australian researchers studied a test group of 2,500 children, and have revealed that children who are exposed to blue asbestos (crocidolite) during childhood have increased risk of a range of diseases, not just those usually associated with asbestos such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.

The test group lived at Wittenoom, a town in Western Australia that once mined blue asbestos. The study, which is published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, shows that these children have an increased risk of not only mesothelioma, but also brain cancer, heart disease and nervous disorders, as well as ovarian cancer in women, and colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia in men.

Clearly this is a study which may or may not be right. Any individual medical advice about asbestos conditions should be obtained from a properly qualified specialist.

Australia had the highest per capita use of asbestos products worldwide between 1950 and 1980, with the use of asbestos only being banned in Australia in 2004. However because of the large lag time between exposure to asbestos and development of an asbestos related disease, asbestos compensation claims (including mesothelioma compensation claims) are not expected to peak in Australia until 2020.

Royal Adelaide Hospital experienced an asbestos scare yesterday when a contractor fell through the ceiling and disturbed asbestos that was contained in the ceiling space.

The SA Herald Sun reported that the hospital, in Adelaide, South Australia, immediately implemented the standard asbestos control safety procedures including sealing the room to reduce the risk of patients and staff being exposed to asbestos, and also restricting access to the asbestos contaminated area. Clearly any exposure to asbestos is a concern given even small amounts can lead to mesothelioma, the asbestos related cancer.

To further reduce the risk of asbestos exposure, a nearby patient was relocated to another room, and a device that detects asbestos in the air was used to ensure the area was safe.

The contractor was not seriously harmed during his fall, but was treated for minor injuries. Safework SA has been alerted of the accident.

Asbestos incidents such as this will hopefully become a thing of the past, with the Australian government announcing in a report earlier this month that they are aiming for Australia to be completely asbestos-free by 2030. If achieved, this will significantly reduce the amount of Australians who contract asbestos related conditions such as mesothelioma and asbestosis.