Asbestos News: The Impact Being Felt on Renovation Workers Exposed to Asbestos in the 70s and 80s

13 Dec 2018

Before it was banned at the end of the 1990s, asbestos had been one of the most widely used construction materials around. The lack of asbestos regulations at the time resulted in thousands of workmen and DIY-ers being exposed repeatedly to the substance that is now known to be the leading cause for deaths from the aggressive cancer of the lungs that is mesothelioma.

Because asbestos exposure is something that often takes up to 30 or even 40 years to develop into a life-threatening condition, those who were involved in unregulated asbestos removal and disposal whilst at work in the 70s and are now bearing the cost of doing so. One example of this tragic consequence is found in the case Les Morris from Australia, who worked for South Sydney council as a carpenter during the 1970s and at the time, had no knowledge of the dangers of working with asbestos.

“I would be covered in it!”

Speaking to ABC Radio Sydney, Mr Morris said that he would spend much of the day cutting materials used in building and would be “covered” in debris of all kinds. So thick would the air be after doing so that he “had to walk out of the room to let the dust settle”, which at the time wasn’t seen as a major problem. This was largely due to the lack of knowledge in circulation regarding the dangers of asbestos and the importance of regulated asbestos abatement.

Les Morris was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma at 65 years of age and although he commended the work done by asbestos firms in raising awareness of how to remove asbestos in a safe way, he said that more should be done to publicise the fact to the general public.

There are many DIY-ers out there who need to be informed about the high chance of encountering asbestos in properties built in the 1990s and before and Mr Morris suggests that perhaps warnings should actually be given out on the hugely popular home renovation shows on TV to address the problem.

A Real and Present Danger

The fact that Mr Morris developed mesothelioma, a cancer so aggressive that it’s resistant to chemotherapy, some 4 decades after exposure, illustrates that there is something of a ticking timebomb of expected cases that were caused before the ban came into place. It also served to highlight that if people don’t understand that asbestos is as big a problem as it has ever been, we could be seeing cases like his for decades to come.

At OHSS Safety Consultants, we have been assisting and educating Irish businesses on all asbestos-related matters since 2001. If you would like to know more about anything discussed here or our full range of services, you can either visit our website www.ohss.ie or call us at our Balbriggan office on 01 6905907 for a chat with one of our friendly experts.


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