Australia Struggles With Asbestos-Contaminated Embassies Overseas

SYDNEY - It seems very little is immune from the severe, worldwide economic downturn, and Australia's overseas embassies are no exception. It was recently reported that four of Australia's Asian embassies are contaminated with asbestos, and as a result, Australia has been hard pressed to find the funds that were needed to make changes to key diplomatic postings in Bangkok and Singapore. Asbestos is a known carcinogen (cancer-causing agent), and it should be noted that the presence of the hazardous material has also forced Australia's Ambassador to the Netherlands to temporarily relocate while asbestos was removed from her official residence.

All of this is costing the Australian government money it doesn't have. A recently released government economic report revealed that Australia's foreign service has, at the present time, insufficient funds to deal adequately with its asbestos problem abroad. Most government officials see little hope that a soon to be revealed spending plan will replace past multimillion dollar cuts in the budget for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has repeatedly said that more money is needed for asbestos abatement in its $ 1.6 billion worth of embassies, though, a realistic plan for obtaining additional asbestos cleanup funding has yet to be revealed.

Asbestos is a general term used to describe a wide variety of silicate minerals that can be mined from the earth or extracted from open air rock formations, and it exists in some abundance in nations around the globe. Asbestos exists in a variety of hues, chemical composition types, and forms, and several types of asbestos have been widely used in numerous industrial processes, as well as in the manufacture of a long list of products from building materials to hair curlers.

Asbestos is an extremely useful material because it's practically fireproof, has excellent insulating qualities, is almost invulnerable to chemical corrosives, has a high tensile strength and more. In the early 1970s, however, widespread, worldwide usage of asbestos was severely curtailed when it was confirmed that exposures to microscopic, airborne asbestos fibers could be deadly. Researchers discovered that asbestos fibers inhaled into the lungs will typically become permanently embedded there, and up to 50 years later, these fibers can cause acute respiratory diseases such as the inevitably fatal form of cancer known as pleural mesothelioma.

The asbestos problems at the embassies are only expected to grow, and they began in 2008 when asbestos investigations revealed small quantities of asbestos in the High Commissioner's residence in Kuala Lumpur. Larger amounts of asbestos were later discovered in the embassies in Cambodia, Thailand, and Singapore. Needless to say, the presence of asbestos in Australia's diplomatic mission buildings is a situation that must be addressed. But the global economic recession persists.

Further investigations into the presence of asbestos in Australia's total of 91 diplomatic mission buildings is scheduled for the coming year, and officials are holding their breath while they await the findings. This because the cost of asbestos abatement in the Singapore and Bangkok embassies alone is expected to be approximately $2 million. Relocations of diplomatic personnel is also very costly, and staff from an entire floor of the Bangkok embassy were shifted to new offices while the Chancellery in Phnom Penh has been closed altogether while new office space is being built.

All of this is seen as contributing to Australia's cutbacks in diplomatic service commitments overall. A recent study conducted by the Lowy Institute for International Policy revealed that Australia has suffered a 25 percent drop in diplomatic personnel postings since 1996, and that the country trails far behind other Western nations when it comes to diplomatic expenditures. Some in the foreign service are concerned that, due to a lack of funds, the government will hire cut rate, unqualified, and unsafe contractors to remove the asbestos from their embassies.

Source: The Age

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