Asbestos News

A recent storm in Australia's Northern Territory has some locals scared that asbestos may have been disturbed.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a report from the Darwin City Council said that asbestos-containing waste that had been buried may have been exposed by Cyclone Carlos in February.

Municipal workers collected more than five cubic meters of asbestos-containing waste that had been unearthed by the category 1 storm, according to a report from the council's environmental committee.

Disturbed asbestos poses a number of serious threats as the inhalation of the deadly fibers can cause a range of serious illnesses such as lung cancer, asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the thin lining of the chest, abdomen and many of the body's internal organs.

Infrastructure general manager Luccio Cercarelli said that much of the waste had been buried for decades.

"Most of it is sheeting-type material because there is a lot of material that was buried in the Nightcliff foreshore following World War II and Cyclone Tracy," he said. "We don't undertake testing of individual pieces, we treat it all as asbestos and collect it."