National Asbestos Awareness Week – 24th – 30th November

Published on 19 November, 2025

Posted by Stephen Gleeson

In recognition of National Asbestos Awareness Week (November 24^th – 30^th) it is timely that I write about the curse that is asbestos and how it impacts all of us to some degree.

For example, this week it was discovered by accident that asbestos fibres have been found in educational coloured sands, widely in schools around the country. More than 1,000 schools and early learning centres across the country have reported using the sand during curriculum activities.

FYI, individuals who import products containing asbestos face fines of up to $222,000 or five years imprisonment, while corporations face fines of more than $1 million.

Examples of how asbestos still impacts us:

Australia still has approximately 40,000 km of asbestos cement drinking / AC water pipes in use!
There is an estimated 7 million tonnes of ACM (Asbestos Containing Materials) in Australia currently. To put this into perspective, roughly 7 Sydney Harbour Bridges.
With the current rate of ACM removal, at around 1 million tonnes a decade, Australians will still be at risk of exposure into the next century.
It is estimated that over 6,000 tonnes of ACMs are illegally dumped in Australia yearly, potentially putting us at risk!
Over 4,000 Australians die annually from asbestos related diseases.
The Australian Mesothelioma Centre predicts approximately 25,000 deaths over the next 4 decades from Mesothelioma. This equates to 625 deaths per year / 1.7 per day!
1 in 3 / 33.3% of homes built prior to 1990 contain some forms of ACM.
Many asbestos products (ACMs) still in the built environment have now reached or are nearing the end of their lifespan. Ageing ACMs are starting to degrade, increasing the risk of becoming friable and releasing fibres, again, putting us at risk.

HAZCON makes a significant contribution to rid our community of the Asbestos curse, providing a range of asbestos related services, including hygienist (development of Division 5 asbestos registers / audits), air monitoring, clearance certificates. Development of Asbestos Management Plans (AMP), Hazardous Building Material Audits (HAZMAT – Division 6). Also, we are an RTO (Registered Training Organisation – Code: 21519) providing nationally accredited and non-accredited training including: