Australian Auction House Undergoes Asbestos Abatement

Cleaning operations at the famous Pickles Auction House near the Australian capital of Canberra began last week. The site was secured three weeks ago after government inspectors uncovered loose asbestos fibers. Simon Corbell, the Australian Capital Territory Attorney-General, stated the rescinding of a notification published last month would permit workers to move parked cars from a storage facility for decontamination. He also stated that the government would be assembling a team of investigators to look into the auction house, but mentioned that the process was in the early stages and that any basis for filing charges had yet to be established.

Leaders from one of the country's most prominent labor unions have alleged that the contractor in charge of the asbestos remediation, Australasian Technical Services, did not provide workers with adequate protective clothing or breathing masks during the course of the project. Also, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union stated that the loose fibers found would pose a health risk to potential customers who visited the site. The union's branch secretary for the Territory, Sarah Schoonwater, asked that the government worker health and safety administration, WorkCover, put in place a plan to provide training in asbestos handling and disposal for all workers by 1 January 2010.

Ms. Schoonwater also stated that improved worker education in asbestos remediation procedures would be a "vital step" in dealing with situations that posed the potential for worked exposure to asbestos. She extended this idea beyond the construction workers on site to the office staff at the auction house, mentioning that, if the workers understood the extent of the problem, the entire issue "may have been avoided".

She also leveled criticism at the Territorial government and at Mr. Corbell for keeping union representatives out of the investigative task force, although workers who had experience in such situations would have been valuable to discovering the root causes of the problem. Mr. Corbell answered by saying that the task force was created to oversee the government's response to the issue.

Mr. Corbell also reiterated the sentiment that the task force's main priority is to insure that the auction house has the proper authorizations as well as the most efficient methods ready to carry out the asbestos removal efforts in the safest manner available. The first step of the process is to inspect and clean up any asbestos residue left on the seventy vehicles stored in the company's warehouse before moving on to the main facility itself. Mr. Corbell was unable to establish a timeframe as to when the cleanup efforts would be finished, although he mentioned that the Territorial Government is treating the project as a "serious incident", with "significant resources" dedicated to the job.

The issues with the auction house are also causing the government to assess its own asbestos policies, according to Mr. Corbell. He said that the government was due to examine their asbestos safety guidelines in early 2010, but may move up that schedule based on recent events.

Note: Since the Pickles site is situated in the Australian Capital Territory, which functions in a similar manner to the District of Columbia in the United States, instead of the surrounding state of New South Wales, the enforcement falls under that district's jurisdiction.

SourcesL Canberra Times, Austrailian Broadcasting Company

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