We should widen inquiry on asbestos contaminated buildings

Akey part of Suva was in lockdown mode yesterday in a bid to isolate an asbestos threat from people. While experts deal with the threat to contain it before they remove the substance, there are usually risks in this kind of operation.

Minister for Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations Jone Usamate assures the public that the situation is under control and there should be no panic.

That’s fine, but the concern is that the demolition work at the Suva Civic Centre auditorium started some months ago. How is the public is only being officially told about it no?

The asbestos saga first hit the public domain through a post on social media that leaked the findings of Pacific Waste Team (PWT), which did a research here. PWT operates under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). SPREP’s headquarters are in Apia, Samoa and it has a Suva office.

The post, which supposedly came from a staff member, claimed: “We now have confirmation of high concentrations of friable asbestos (30%) at uncontrolled work site at the Civic next to the main park in central Suva. “This is an extremely dangerous asbestos exposure event, the worst the Pac Waste consultants have seen that has probably exposed thousands of people during the uncontrolled works that have been occurring in the last two weeks. I am therefore notifying all relevant parties in an effort to have an appropriate response to the situation. All SPREP personnel in Suva should not come within 500 metres of the site. (minimum) as they would be exposed.”

But Mr Usamate said the chances of air contamination were low because of the containment work.

However, the question still remains about the time it has taken to publicly warn people about the asbestos danger.

While Mr Usamate has been dealing with the media on behalf of all stakeholders, the Suva City Council needs to answer some questions too.

1. Was it aware that the Suva Civic Centre auditorium had asbestos before the demolition work began?

2. If it was, why didn’t it inform the relevant stakeholders, the Chinese workers from Guandong Province, local contractors, its line minister Parveen Bala and Mr Usamate because this is a major health risk

3. If it wasn’t aware of the asbestos risks, then it shows a glaring gap in information gathering and sharing in the council. Surely there is a history attached to the building. The change in council leadership from time to time should not negatively impact on council’s operation. There should be continuity in the flow of information because the history remains the property of the council.

This saga exposes the possibility that there may be other old buildings standing today that have asbestos because they were built at a time when asbestos materials were widely used in building and construction.

The serious impact of asbestos on people’s lives, business and the economy cannot be over-emphasised. We saw it in Suva yesterday.

This saga gives us an opportunity to identify highrisk areas and buildings that may have asbestos. We should deal with the challenges in a transparent manner.

The asbestos saga first hit the public domain through a post on social media that leaked the findings of Pacific Waste Team (PWT), which did a research here.