Warning - Sandy Cape WA - Asbestos everywhere

I mailed them as soon as I returned home a week ago with telephone contact details and photos.

The objective is not to get the site closed down, just that they do a proper clean-up.

The asbestos was right in the main camping area, 3 meters from my set-up.

Any regular inspection of the area would have found this, as with some of the larger piles of asbestos I saw too.

Wouldn't it be best to re-habitate the area properly - there must be some "Royality for Regions" money for that.

My point was that they may take the cheaper option when confronted with a complaint. Royalties for Regions might work - did you suggest that in your email? Councils sometimes take weeks to reply - to ensure that someone with the right authority in that area can answer.

Mh

Real men crush it and use it instead of salt on their snags....even though most health authorities warn that any contact ie, breathing, eating or skin contact is hazardous. Most health authorities are a bunch of pussies though. A quick google about eating asbestos will point the pussies out. :-)

Kev I hear the same histeria at work when people see asbestos, or what the think is asbestos. People forget that most of the boundary fences around their properties is asbestos. Agree that asbestos can be eaten, tastes crap though.

Notwithstanding I am very suprised that the camping area is being permitted to be used as no doubt it is now a registered contaminated site.

Don't try eating it :O - a horrible disease

Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Mh

Kev, there are two kinds of asbestos, Blue & White. Blue asbestos was mined at Wittnoom and, consists of fine in some cases almost invisible particles in make up easier ti inhale and is responsible for the health problems. While White asbestos is much coarser and harder to inhale. BTW Blue asbestos is quite prevalent in some of the Karajini Gorges.

Actually there is 6 types of Asbestos ;)

But only 3 main ones used in Aust.

Chrysotile (White) -This is the most commonly used form of asbestos and can be found today in roofs, ceilings, walls and floors of homes and businesses. Chrysotile asbestos also was used in automobile brake linings, pipe insulation, gaskets and boiler seals.

Amosite - This is known as brown asbestos, and it originates mostly in Africa. It was used most frequently in cement sheet and pipe insulation. It can be found in insulating board (which contained up to 40 percent asbestos), ceiling tiles and in thermal insulation products. Like the other forms of amphibole asbestos, it has needle-like fibers.

Crocidolite - This is blue asbestos and its known for having the best heat resistance. Mined mostly in South Africa, Bolivia and Australia, this is seen as the most dangerous type of asbestos. Crocidolite was commonly used to insulate steam engines, and it was found in some spray-on coatings, pipe insulation and cement products.

The others are

Tremolite which can be white, green, gray and even transparent.

Anthophyllite which is a gray-brown colour

Actinolite is most often found in metamorphic rock is is mainly a contaminant to the othe forms of Asbestos and was not used commercially.

Having being trained in Asbestos removal, and now working for Local Government in QLD I get public enquiries nearly every week, most people blow everything out of the water in 90% of the cases I see. It is the untrained and unsupervised Asbestos removal that causes all the issues. Keep suspect material wet and do not disturb.

Cheers Kev

and space junk may fall on you as well.


Danger Will Robinson Danger Danger Danger...........

You obviously have no idea of the dangers posed so why bother commenting.

Because I obviously have a better idea than you. I lived for years surrounded by an asbestos fence.
There wouldnt be a person here that hasnt regularly lived and or worked alongside asbestos.
Asbestos lying in the sand poses no hazard

Yes Mesothelioma and asbestos risk is just a big beatup. Unless of course you are one of the more than 5,000+ Australians who die from it each decade, or you are one of the 5,000 who are expected to contract it in the next decade, or you know someone who has it, or someone who died on the operating table in a desperate attempt to ward off the inevitable - as a result of years of contact with fibro left lying around the yard for decades.

Joe,
when my dad was about 80 the doc said to him did you work with asbestos at all. The old man replied, yes during the war on ships. Doc said don't be alarmed by what I am going to tell you because you will be long gone before this will kill you but you have asbestosis.

There you go. Good for 50 odd years and bang it shows up. Guess many of those people shouldn't feel so smug about handling it.

We would strike actinolite when mining underground and the area would be barricaded and wet down until a sample was tested to see whether if it was the fibrous type or not. They took it very seriously.

Theres no doubt working with asbestos especially in an environment that creates asbestos dust is a massive risk factor. But just being in the vacinity of inert asbestos poses little to no danger. If it did every single one of us would die of asbestosis

Yep,
Joe mentioned digging out tonnes of it during mining, that would be a hugh risk and won't show up for years. They would need some very stringent controls in place if this is happening.