ATAC Release Press Statement re Asbestos Management

09/02/2012 : go back

We are in agreement with the statement that properly-managed asbestos presents little risk. However, we can provide literally hundreds of examples each year that we personally have first-hand knowledge of, where effective management controls have either broken down, or were not present at all. Regardless of any subsequent enforcement action, many of those failures in effective management will have resulted in an exposure that may cause an incurable cancer in those exposed, sometimes decades later.

To believe that asbestos management is in the main effective, is to deny the evidence that we see repeatedly, every day, not only in schools but also in offices, public buildings, hospitals, rented accommodation, private workplaces....

As long as people are around asbestos, the evidence shows that reliance on management controls is often ineffective. The only safe way to draw a line under these repeated exposures is to either remove the people from the building, or the asbestos.