Recent revelations from the ongoing James Hardie asbestos saga has fired up Scrubba Dub Dub to take a quick overview on where the damage has been done.Just like Dupont's profitable contribution to destroying the world by inventing CFC's that continue to destroy large tracts of our ozone layer, James Hardie along with relative minor player CSR managed to spread asbestos across our beautiful planet, setting of a potential time bomb of immense proportions.
From WWII to the 1960's a large proportion of Australian Homes were built using the tough and fire-proof wonder product "fibro" which as we all now know was not so tough and made from deadly lung-cancer causing asbestos.
In Sydney alone nearly 200,000 homes were built using this poison, in an area now known as the "fibro-belt" stretching from Bankstown to St.Marys. Check out my approximate asbestos map above to get an idea of the size of the problem.
The harsh reality is that the baring down of time means homes in this toxic belt are falling apart, and as is widely known, falling apart means a slow splintering and crumbling which releases asbestos fibres onto the surrounding winds. A similar story is played out across cities large and small across Australia and indeed around many parts of the world.
Something that hardly rates a mention in Australia's corporate media is that each and everyone of these properties will increasingly become less than worthless, and in fact selling one amounts to nothing less than passing on the ticking time-bomb. Selling one to a young family with children should be immediately banned, and bringing children into these suburban areas at all should be considered the height of negligence and running very close to abuse.
But you wont hear anything about this from the real estate agent slime who will be happy to take their % conscience free from anything that moves on the sacrosanct market. And NSW has a major web of corruption permeating local councils and the state government, so it is extremely doubtful that anything will be seriously done to address the issue.
Scrubba dub dub says STAY AWAY FROM THE AREA!
Can anyone produce similar maps of your local area??
The other time bomb is for home renovators who happily remove old fibro when extending the home or knowcking down the old garage/shed, ignorant of the asbestos fibres they are releasing. This is not just a danger to themselves: the tiny fibres come into the house on clothes (danger for the partner or child who gives them a hug) and they blow about in the wind (danger to neighbours). An expert I spoke to in Victorian Trades Hall says the next big spike in asbestos-related diseases will be amongst home renovators. Remember, it only takes one fibre to cause the cancer, but it can take 20-50 years for mesothelioma to develop, it's notoriously hard to diagnose until it's too late, and it's almost always fatal.
ReplyDeleteWow its just crazy to leave this unattended.
ReplyDeleteIn 1989 i went travelling around Australia to discover the town of Wittenoom, where years earlier the town thrived on the minning of Asbestos. It sits in the north of Western Australia with streets and shops empty, this included open air picture theater, butcher and other shops all still fully equipped.
The Town revealed with its abandonment, silver streaks of crumbling walls, that would bring an uncertain itch to ones throat.
The government bought the local community out so they could like so many other social issues, sweep it under the carpet and have the old locals dye else where, splintered and drifting to deal with it alone and ignorred.
Schools still have this problem, and as 'Scubba' has identified, whole communitys still have this problem. To this day we are surrounded by it and the problem is continually ignored. It is one of the hideous crimes of our times, an unseen enemy of the people and the capitalist p's just continue to focus on how to make the big bucks, how to impress us with there multimedia manipulation and trickery, whilst we remain powerless to their decisions, it sucks and its not an old topic, although they wish it was and that the topic disappeared with the people of wittenoom. They closed the mine in 1966, and are still trying to buy out the few remaining locals who call Wittenoom home. The last i heard was that they where going to build a resort there and do Gorge tours. Ha! what a Joke
check this out!.
http://asbestosdiseases.org.au/asbestosinfo/wittenoom_tragedies.htm