Another Canberran family has bought a house only to discover it was contaminated with Mr Fluffy loose-fill asbestos.
Dean Papas told the ABC the potentially deadly fibres were found as an electrician was installing a bathroom fan while renovating their supposed “forever home”.
“I didn’t think it was going to eventuate into anything until they sent me a photo of what they had. As soon as that happened, my heart just sank. I knew there and then it wasn’t looking good,” Mr Papas told the ABC.
“I know I’ve definitely been exposed to it. We replaced a number of downlights and all the fibres, I still remember, were falling in my hair and in my face.”
The ACT Government’s 2014 scheme to demolish and buy back asbestos-filled Mr Fluffy homes helped pay for more than 1,000 affected properties, but Mr Papas’ home is the sixth to have been missed in the initial round of inspections.
ACT Minister for Housing Services, Sustainable Building and Construction, Rebecca Vassarotti, said moving to a mandatory testing scheme was not regarded as essential seven years ago.
“Moving to a mandatory system wasn’t deemed as one of the key strategies in 2014 and with even less properties at this point, there hasn’t been the evidence that’s emerged that a point in sale mandatory scheme is something that is necessary.
“But we will continue to monitor that situation and work with the [Asbestos Response] Taskforce, in particular, if we are starting to identify more issues.”
Ms Vassarotti said the government knew at the time there was a possibility that additional properties would be identified. At the time, they decided it was “really important” to ensure tradespeople coming into contact with potential asbestos were trained to ensure they weren’t at risk.
“In 2014, in terms of the potential risk in the community, a mandatory scheme was not seen as something that was appropriate at that time, but there are absolutely processes in place that if people felt that they needed the certainty of that, they are able to access [reports],” she said.
“As people are looking to buy a property, everyone is able to access on a voluntary basis many different reports, including an asbestos assessment report. But there has been a view that the current settings of the scheme that’s been operating for many years has worked quite well, and certainly the work of ensuring tradespeople understood if they came across loose-fill asbestos they knew exactly what to do.”
Lea Durie, head of the Asbestos Response Taskforce, told the ABC there may be Mr Fluffy properties in Canberra that are still undiscovered, and potential buyers and owners should check their properties.
“What we would do is encourage anybody who thinks that they may have loose-fill asbestos in their property or are considering buying a property that they are concerned about, that they engage an asbestos assessor to investigate,” she told the ABC.
Get all the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.
