Asbestos Awareness Program for Cowra

The subject of Asbestos Awareness Month this November is making home renovators aware of the dangers asbestos removal poses to both them and home owners.

Up until the mid-80’s, asbestos was extensively used in Cowra in a variety of home and commercial building materials. However, the health risks asbestos fibres pose when released into the air and breathed are quite many and are linked to health problems like mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

Many have the wrong assumption that it is only fibro homes that contain asbestos. However, most asbestos products are very likely to be found in almost any Australian home that was renovated or built before 1987, and that includes clad, fibro, weatherboard and brick homes.

“Asbestos, is this a game of reno-roulette?”

This year’s awareness campaign is generally aimed at preventing “Third Wave” asbestos sufferers – these are home renovators of homes or buildings built before the year 1990 when the material was widely used to build structures in Australia.

The purpose of Asbestos Awareness Month is to alert Australians of the dangers of working with the material when maintaining or renovating homes.

Considering that Australia has one of the highest number of asbestos-related cancer cases in the world, and with the number of confirmed cases continuing to rise as a result of home renovation and maintenance, exposure to this materials fibres is now being considered a major health threat to the lives of Australians.

The event will be highlighting the fact that all homes renovated or built before the mid-80’s is highly likely to contain asbestos, and if left undisturbed, the material will generally pose no health risk to people around or working with it. There will also be guests who provide services in Asbestos Removal Sydney NSW who will give presentations on the costs and details of removing asbestos from your home.

However, when bothered or altered during maintenance and renovations, it can release minute fibres into the air. When breathed in, these fibres can lead to the development of life-threatening diseases like pleural disease, lung cancer, mesothelioma which is a terminal cancer with no cure, and asbestosis.

One factor that is making things worse is that the number of people who are doing Do It Yourself home renovations nationally is continuing to rise.

With the median gap between exposure and diagnosis sitting at 40 years, and with an even larger number of people being diagnosed with mesothelioma as a result of maintaining or renovating homes, the importance of educating people about the dangers of this material cannot be emphasized enough.

The Awareness Month is an initiative of Asbestos Education Committee in conjunction with Asbestos Disease Research Institute, with support from the government and various Asbestos Support Groups.

For more information about Asbestos Awareness Month, please visit this website: asbestosawarenes.com.au or give Cowra Council a call on 6340-2051.

Update: Clear Asbestos Removal is now operating in Melbourne as well as Cowra, so anybody South can organise a free assessment through Clear Asbestos Removal Melbourne who can inspect any materials that you have suspected as being asbestos.