Survey reveals a region awash with asbestos

Transcript

For the first time, authorities in the Pacific now have an idea of just how much asbestos there is in the region, and are trying to work out how to get rid of it before it becomes a health risk.

The Pacific environment agency SPREP says that until this latest survey, done with European Union assistance, there's only been anecdotal evidence about the quantity and condition of asbestos in the region.

SPREP's Pacwaste project manager, Stewart Williams, says the survey has found that the once-common building material is widespread, including in public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

He told Jamie Tahana the agency is now working to try and help the region's governments develop a programme to get rid of asbestos before it becomes an issue.

STEWART WILLIAMS: There's only been anecdotal evidence in relation to the quantities and condition of asbestos that are present in Pacific Island countries. As a result of the survey we now actually have an idea of the quantities, the locations, and the conditions they are in so we can plan what interventions we'll do under the Pacwaste project.

JAMIE TAHANA: How prevalent is it and in what condition I guess importantly?

SW: It's quite interesting the asbestos is widespread across the Pacific, but it's not in even quantities in all countries. There are some countries that have a lot and and there are some countries that have very little. The northern Pacific, it found in FSM and the Marshall Islands and Palau, has very little asbestos material whereas the southern Pacific we are finding quite a lot. It's primarily in buildings, in roofing material, in wall material, sometimes in flooring and also in water pipes. The condition compared to how it would be in Australia and New Zealand is typically not painted, and so it's quite weathered and there's quite a lot in residential as well as in government buildings and commercial buildings.

JT: And weathered asbestos isn't good is it?

SW: It's a danger in relation to when it actually becomes airborne and you inhale it into your lungs. The good thing about our survey though is we did do comprehensive air monitoring and we did not find airborne asbestos. So therefore what we've got is asbestos that's in poor condition, which shows that there is a risk but what we're finding is that there isn't actually immediate damage to human health. So what that tells us for our interventions are that we should be aware but not alarmed. You know, we can go in with a very deliberate programme to address the public and community buildings that are weathered to try and head off any incidents when the material becomes airborne. The difference in the Pacific is of course we have natural disasters like we had with cyclone Heta that hit Niue, cyclone Evan which hit Tonga and then cyclone Pam in Vanuatu where if there is asbestos present, it tends to be destroyed and distributed within the storm debris and then it complicates clean-up. So there is another reason as to widen the target arm and remove it proactively.

JT: So now we know all this, how widespread it is, where it is and stuff, what happens from here to get rid of it?

SW: Now that we actually know, we've quantified the amount of asbestos there is, and the locations, one of the things that's occurred is that there is a priority action list that the Pacwest project has put forward, where we'll address those locations that have the highest risk, mostly because they're public buildings in poor condition and we can get rid of it within the amount of money we've got. But the bulk of the asbestos is in residential. In relation to those, I think we now need to take this information and update the regional strategies and come down with country strategies in that as well to gradually address it, with education being  probably the most important thing. Because asbestos is only a human health risk when its airborne the community and the people are in proximity of the buildings. They can protect themselves a lot, for builders, for water workers who deal with asbestos pipes and for other people in that industry, appropriately training them so they take safeguards when they're working on buildings with asbestos.