Asbestos - the silent assassin

Last year, nearly 3000 Australians died from a range of asbestos-related diseases. This was a higher death toll than all the industrial mortalities combined. In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in this death rate - one that many experts agree has not even reached its peak. This is by far Australia's most serious industrial safety issue.

The main cause for this death rate is a disease called mesothelioma - a degenerative and incurable condition that is caused by the inhalation or absorption of asbestos fibres into the body. If the health experts are correct, by 2010, there will be up to 40,000 people dead from either asbestos-related mesothelioma or associated lung cancer. For its part, mesothelioma is almost entirely caused by asbestos fibres and has been known to cause death in people within six months of diagnosis. According to the National Occupational Health and Safety Council (NOHSC), the ratio of men to women who are dying from the disease is about six to one.

In a recent report by the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia (ADFA), the number of people diagnosed with the deadly asbestos-related disease is expected to skyrocket in the next 30 years. The ADFA says that Australia has one of the highest rates of mesothelioma and other asbestos-induced diseases in the world, adding that at current levels, these diseases are "at epidemic levels already."

ADFA CEO Ella Sweeney says that this disease can take up to 30 or 40 years to develop but once people have it they can die within 12 months and "there is no cure." Moreover, according to Sweeney, between 2003 and 2020 it has been estimated that some 13,000 Australians will die from mesothelioma and a further 40,000 will develop asbestosis, which means they have a 90 per cent chance of developing full-blown mesothelioma over time. More disturbing are the changes in the demographic pattern of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses. Sweeney notes that, "We are now seeing people in their 30s and 40s with asbestos-related diseases whereas before it was mainly people in their 50s who were developing the same symptoms."

Sweeney takes asbestos-related diseases personally. She has asbestosis herself, a legacy of working as a nurse in a hospital which was being renovated and literally being "daily covered in a fine dust", which turned out to be asbestos fibres. To say the disease caught her by surprise would be an understatement. "In 1992 I was forty five years old, already a grandmother and looking forward to becoming a very young great-grandmother. I developed a cough, which didn't respond to antibiotics and which would not go away for months. Eventually my doctor sent me to have a CAT scan, which showed that I had lung cancer. My first reaction was 'bloody fantastic' - at least I caught it in time. The follow-up biopsy revealed I was suffering from asbestosis. I was devastated - totally gutted! The doctor gave me no more than five years to live. That was ten years ago. "I love proving him wrong," she muses.

Asbestos is a mineral mined in countries such as Australia and Canada and processed for many commercial applications throughout the world. It is commonly known in its various forms as blue asbestos (crocidolite), brown asbestos (amosite), or white asbestos (chrysotile).

The resistance of asbestos to fire and chemical breakdown and its fibrous structure are properties which have made it useful in many products. Most are familiar with its use in building material as asbestos cement sheeting, insulation and various fireproof fabrics. But it has also gained entry into homes in other forms such as ironing blankets, simmering pads for the top of stoves and by way of contamination in talcum powder.

Asbestos fibres can become airborne because they are very fine. Some of them are small enough to get through the smallest airways of the lung to end up in the air sacs where the oxygen gets into the blood. Asbestos can also be swallowed.

Inhaled fibres are the cause of asbestos-related lung diseases and swallowed fibres cause peritoneal or abdominal mesothelioma.

It is now a well-known fact that all types of asbestos are unsafe for humans and the three forms of commercial asbestos, which have been used in Australia, are all harmful. The 1992 OH&S Australian Standard for Asbestos stipulated that any material containing more than one per cent of the material was a hazard, whereas the revised 2003 version removes this minimum numerical value and defines it as "any material or object that contains asbestos." In reality, there is no amount of asbestos exposure low enough to be guaranteed 100 per cent free of health risk. It is also known that even home owner-renovators of old homes have developed mesothelioma, as have the wives who regularly shook out and washed the overalls of asbestos workers, although more than 90 per cent of mesothelioma cases are known to be work related.

Asbestos can cause three separate diseases - asbestosis, or thickening of the lungs, where the victim loses the capacity to breathe at all; cancer of the outer lining of the lung or mesothelioma, for which there is no known cure; and lung carcinoma, or cancer deep inside the lung. What's more, between 1975, when asbestos consumption peaked in this country at about 70,000 tonnes, and 2000, the NOHSC reported that the number of mesothelioma cases increased nine-fold.

But this is no modern-day discovery. As far back as the first century AD, the Roman historian, Pliny the Elder noted that slaves weaving asbestos cloth became so ill they eventually died and by 1906 the British government had confirmed the first cases of asbestos deaths in UK factories. It recommended factories install better ventilation and use other safety equipment. By 1918, US insurance companies were refusing to insure workers who handled asbestos products. In Australia, this catharsis has been slow in coming. It was not until 1939 that the first public health official went on record about the health problems associated with asbestos, yet both state and federal authorities chose to ignore the facts until nearly 50 years later.

After decades of inaction by successive governments, the ravages caused by asbestos to the health of Australian workers are now beginning to come to light. And those who have been exposed to asbestos come from all walks of life, including both blue- and white-collar workers.

In a 2001 documentary called 'Power without Glory' on ABC television's Four Corners program, the experiences of residents and power industry workers in Victoria's Latrobe Valley were highlighted.

According to the documentary, from 1924, when the first Victorian State Electricity Commission (VSEC) power station opened, thousands of tonnes of asbestos were used for insulation purposes.

No safety protection was given to the workers until the late 1970s. During the last few years, the close-knit community has been subjected to clouds of dust as old power stations have been dismantled.

The VSEC was warned of the health dangers emanating from the Yallourn Power Station as early as 1944, when the Victorian Health Department recommended medical examinations of workers exposed to asbestos for long periods. The SEC refused, stating "a medical examination is a matter for the employees themselves." By 1945 the regulation levels for asbestos were set by law, although they were never properly enforced.

In 1956, the Victorian government declared spraying asbestos or lagging (wrapping a wet asbestos mixture around pipes for insulation) to be dangerous. But workers were still required to open bags of loose asbestos and tip the dry fibre into drums for mixing with clay and water.

As the mixture was applied to pipes, pieces would dry and fall to the floor. Some of them would be cleared away by the laggers and their assistants, and compressed air hoses would blow the residue from the floor. A cloud of asbestos fibre would continuously envelop the power station. Workers would be covered in it, as well as carrying the dust home on the soles of their shoes.

According to the Four Corners documentary, "The VSEC knew of the dangers of asbestos over 50 years before the Victorian Government finally accepted responsibility. In 1944, Dr Douglas Shields of the Victorian Health Department toured the Yallourn power stations in the Latrobe Valley and warned of the dangers. He recommended the VSEC provide health checks for workers but this was rejected by the management as unnecessary.

Furthermore, "By the late 1970s, workers in the Latrobe Valley unions were starting to become extremely worried about the number of their members who were succumbing to asbestos-related disease. Men who had worked in the floating dust of the power plants were dying. When they tried to seek legal redress from the State Electricity Commission, their actions were blocked in the courts by a huge and wealthy employer who could outlast them. Many died before their legal claims could be finished."

According to a Latrobe Valley compensation lawyer, Steve Plunkett, who has acted for hundreds of these clients, most of them now dead, "Without doubt this is the worst industrial disaster that has ever befallen this country."

Following growing community pressure, in May 2001, the Workplace Relations Ministers' Council decided to ban asbestos. The importation of raw asbestos and products containing the deadly substance will be banned in Australia as of 31 December 2003.

This phasing-out period will enable replacement brake and clutch linings maker Bendex Mintex, who had argued strenuously against the ban and the last big asbestos user in Australia, to replace the substance with other products.

ACTU secretary Greg Combet called the decision "great news for workers" although he lamented the lives of thousands of workers lost through exposure to asbestos.

More than sixty years after the authorities first recognised the dangers of asbestos and the risks this substance poses, it has finally moved to ban its importation. This decision, however wise, could hardly be labelled as being prudent. For those, such as Sweeney, who have already been diagnosed with the deadly asbestosis, this decision is of little consequence. Apart from devoting all of her waking hours to helping the victims of asbestos poisoning, she is currently involved in a compensation case for her own illness. However, even if she were to be successful, in itself it would represent nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory. As Ella Sweeney wryly points out, "Asbestos has stolen all of my dreams."