Asbestos News

A high-ranking police official in the Australian state of New South Wales recently criticized the delay in alerting officers to the presence of asbestos in many police buildings.

A recent report revealed that more than 450 police sites across the state pose asbestos risks to workers, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This has drawn the ire of New South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher because he feels officers should have been told of the risks sooner.

"For an examination that commenced in 2008, I do not believe it's satisfactory at all that it waits until 2011 before the matter surfaces," Gallacher said, according to the news source. "I need to understand and that will come with the report. Once [police] became aware of the problem, what steps were taken to ameliorate that problem at the time rather than just waiting for the report to be finalized."

Asbestos is present in many older buildings as the substance was once widely used in the construction industry as an insulator and a flame retardant. However, by the mid-1960s it was proven that exposure to asbestos could cause a range of serious illnesses such as malignant mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer.