The old Wunderlich asbestos factory at Gaythorne. Source: News Corp Australia
SEVEN sites identified as asbestos dumps now officially pose no risk to the public.
A State Government taskforce, set up to investigate possible health problems linked to two former asbestos factories in Brisbane, ordered inspections at several locations where waste from the plants was believed to have been buried during their nearly 50 years of operation up till the mid-1980s.
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Taskforce head, Local Government Minister David Crisafulli, said the seven sites in the suburbs of Gaythorne, Mitchelton and Enoggera had been identified from existing records and information provided by present and past residents in the areas.
Checks by environmental health officers found no evidence that the caps on any buried waste had been breached.
While some pieces of broken fibro material, believed to contain asbestos, were found at two of the sites – along the Kedron Brook in Gaythorne and a smaller creek at Glen Retreat Rd in Mitchelton – it was thought to have been dumped there illegally much more recently.
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Results are still awaited on detailed tests conducted at several houses in the streets around the former Wunderlich asbestos factory in Gaythorne. Earlier sampling, commissioned by The Courier-Mail, found asbestos dust in the roof spaces of five out of six properties tested.
A preliminary check of cancer registers found 20 cases of mesothelioma since 1982 among people who lived within a 1.5km radius of the Wunderlich factory or a former James Hardie plant at Newstead when they were diagnosed.
Work is continuing to trace cases of cancers or other asbestos-related illnesses among people who have moved away from the areas.