Loose-Fill Asbestos Found In Parramatta & Hills Council Homes

Dur­ing the 1960s-70s in Aus­tralia, loose-fill asbes­tos was com­monly sold as ceil­ing insu­la­tion for Par­ra­matta and Hills Coun­cil res­id­en­tial and com­mer­cial prop­er­ties. It was seen as a mater­ial that was dur­able and provided effi­cient insu­la­tion, and this res­ul­ted in it being installed in ceil­ings around the coun­try. In the 1980s, the dangers of asbes­tos and its harm­ful effects to the human body were finally real­ised, but it was too late. It had already been installed in count­less homes around the nation.

Loose-fill asbes­tos that becomes air­borne can travel from roof cav­it­ies, through exposed path­ways and into the liv­ing areas of a home. If these asbes­tos fibres are breathed in, it can poten­tially cause Asbestosis, which is a scar tis­sue that grows inside the lungs, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to breathe and can even­tu­ally res­ult in lung can­cer. It can also cause Meso­the­lioma. The pleura is attacked in this type of can­cer (particles attach to the lung’s pro­tect­ive lin­ing in the chest cavity.

Due to this being a very dan­ger­ous risk that loose-fill asbes­tos poses, the NSW Gov­ern­ment has decided to order the demoli­tion of these houses because it would be too expens­ive to remove. This needs to be fol­lowed up with a thor­ough remedi­ation of the land and disposal.

Homes built before 1980 can register for a free sample to be tested. This is provided that you live in a local gov­ern­ment area where asbes­tos has been found.

If you are not in an already iden­ti­fied area, how­ever, you can still pay for a licensed asbes­tos assessor to come and do a test. If your home is found to be pos­it­ive for asbes­tos, Fair Trad­ing will reim­burse you for the cost of this test­ing and the local gov­ern­ment will add your area to their recog­nised list of asbes­tos affected zones. This will also allow other sur­round­ing homeown­ers to apply for the free sample testing.

If the test finds that your home con­tains loose-fill asbes­tos, the Vol­un­tary Pur­chase and Demoli­tion Pro­gram will assist you with safety pre­cau­tions and provide you with sup­port, whether you are a homeowner or tenant.

The NSW gov­ern­ment is offer­ing a prop­erty buy-back scheme and you will be able to sell the land to the NSW gov­ern­ment for mar­ket value. This means that people will not suf­fer a fin­an­cial loss if they decide to sell their home and move.

It is strongly advised that homeown­ers do not ignore this oppor­tun­ity, because if you find out after the offer expires that your prop­erty con­tains loose-fill asbes­tos, you may be out of pocket for the costly remedi­ation required.

There is no way around this as in the future any prop­erty lis­ted for sale is leg­ally oblig­ated to dis­close loose-fill asbes­tos in the con­tract of sale and plan­ning cer­ti­fic­ates. Clauses will also be added to Res­id­en­tial Ten­ancy Agree­ments to pro­tect people rent­ing the property.

Go to www.asbestos.nsw.gov.au or call 13 77 88 for more inform­a­tion.