Australia: Department of Defense using asbestos-containing products three years after the ban

Sydney, Australia – The country’s Minister of Defense, Joel Fitzgibbon, was outraged when he learned that officials in his own department applied for another three-year exemption from laws banning the use of asbestos-containing materials.

Minister Fitzgibbon sternly addressed his department’s services chiefs, ordering them to put a stop to the use of parts and equipment that contain the deadly substance.

A ban was declared on the use of asbestos-containing products in the workplace by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission in 2001. The law went into effect in January 2004.

However, the Department of Defense was granted a three-year extension, which permitted it to continue using certain asbestos-containing products, including brake pads, fire barriers, seals, gaskets, insulation and packaging. Last year, top officials in the department applied for a new one.

A senior member of the Defense staff said the that the Minister expects his department to follow the same rules that applies to the private sector when it comes to the issue of asbestos while also maintaining the same high quality of national security.

The Department of Defense will consider “all possibilities and alternatives” to the use of asbestos, the source claimed.

In the past 80 years, thousands of cases of asbestos-related illnesses, some resulting in death, have been reported among the Defense staff.

Leigh Hubbard, the Asbestos Diseases Society of Victoria’s executive director, was pleased to learn of Minister Fitzgibbon’s actions.

He said that until late last year, the efforts of unions and asbestos groups to get the government to hold its agencies accountable had gone ignored. He has more to hope for now that changes are being seen, starting with the Defense Department.

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