Residents of a remote town in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia are calling on the government to step in and address possible asbestos exposure due to a building purchased with government money.
Members of the Tennant Creek community are calling for health checks to determine whether the town’s children are suffering from asbestos exposure after entering the unoccupied building, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The town’s largest Aboriginal corporation, the Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation, purchased the building, now vandalized and a common play place for area children, eight years ago with federal government grant money designated for community centers and housing, according to the news source.
The asbestos in the building — as well as in six other unused buildings on other sites around town — was only discovered in November after residents paid for their own laboratory tests to determine the presence of asbestos, which is a known human carcinogen and linked to the development of a deadly cancer known as mesothelioma. The NT Government’s Worksafe only confirmed asbestos in the buildings last month after more tests were carried out by the Asbestos Disease Support Society. Locals are looking for answers as to why the government didn’t ensure the corporation used the building, which they feel would have prevented children from using as a play area or vandalizing it.
“Because the structure was all smashed up into tiny bits, as you can see those bits on the ground, kids were playing in here for months and months using it as a cubby house,” resident Linda Turner told the news source.
The government has been investigating the Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation’s compliance with funding agreements for three years and has given until March for the company to respond to its results, which have not been made public. NT Worksafe is working to create a series of risk control measures to protect the public and workers from asbestos exposure.
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