Asbestos News

Asbestos was recently found in a school in Queensland, Australia, after routine maintenance. According to the Fraser Coast Chronicle, Hervey Bay's Torquay State School tested positive for the carcinogenic material.

While a school staff member was placing a vermin trap in the ceiling, suspicious debris was discovered. The school responded by hiring a company to test the material.

"One sample taken from the top of the ceiling sheet tested positive [for] asbestos-containing material," Vince White, Education Queensland's acting assistant director-general of infrastructure services, told the publication.

Other samples were taken from various spaces in the school, including the same ceiling location, a television, kitchen cupboards and on top of a fan. No other asbestos was detected. However, the school department didn't want to take any risks and employed QBuild to make the ceiling area safe by cleaning and removing the asbestos.

The news source reports that many buildings erected before 1990 have traces of asbestos, and the material is linked to asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma and other diseases when it becomes airborne after being disturbed.

Malignant mesothelioma, one of the most dangerous illnesses relating to asbestos, is a rare form of cancer that attacks the tissues surrounding most of the body's internal organs.