The Police Association Journal november 2009

18
Potential asbestos exposure
during the Victorian bushfires
The February 2009 bushfires in Victoria left many homes and buildings damaged.
The likelihood that some of these
homes and buildings contained
asbestos products is high.
Emergency service workers,
including police, may have
unknowingly been exposed
to asbestos dust and fibres in
the course of their emergency
relief work.
Inhalation to asbestos could have
possibly occurred from;
• Searching through the debris
of burnt buildings;
• Breaking through walls to gain
access; and
• Breaking up building
materials such as flat asbestos
cement sheeting (also known
as fibro sheeting) and
corrugated sheeting.
Although most building materials
were degraded by the fires the risk
of inhaling disturbed asbestos dust
and fibres remains.
If you think you may have
inhaled asbestos dust and fibres it is
important to register this exposure.
Not everyone who has been
exposed to asbestos will develop
an asbestos related condition.
Registering your details and
exposure now will however greatly
assist you or your family members
if action is needed in the future.
Contact Dominic Smith on 1800 555
615 to register your details on the
Slater & Gordon National Asbestos
Register, for further information
and to receive a free Asbestos
Disease brochure.
Slater & Gordon also have
a lawyer visiting the Police
Association offices on a fortnightly
basis if you wish to make an
appointment
to speak
to them
regarding
asbestos
or another
legal issue.
Running for a safe climate
Police on duty at the scenes of Black Saturday fires are this month taking action over
their concerns about climate change by participating in a 6000 kilometre run.
The director of the organisation
Safe Climate Australia,
Brendan Condon, says the
police runners are taking part in
a “unique world project”, the first
event of its type just for emergency
services workers, the frontline of
any future climate-related disaster.
The “Run For a Safe Climate” team
includes nine Victoria Police Force
members, fire fighters, paramedics,
SES workers, park rangers and
military personnel. They set off on
November 2 to run down Australia’s
eastern seaboard. From their start
at Cooktown they are travelling
through areas identified as
threatened by global warming such
as the Daintree rainforest, The Great
Barrier Reef, alpine regions and the
Murray-Darling river system.
After Black Saturday, one of the
runners, Constable Roger McRae
from Melbourne West was on
roadblock duty at Kinglake, having
to stop people entering the fire
scene to look for loved ones. “You
just hated to see it,” he recalls.
Events such as the February fires
have been cited by some as evidence
of climate change and as portents to
future catastrophe. Constable McRae
will be thinking of his five-year old
daughter, Kaelah, while he runs.
“She’s my inspiration. In years to
come I want to be able to say to her ‘I
did this for you and your generation’.”
Senior Constable Anthony
Sullivan, from the Regional
Response Unit, says he has joined
the run to be with like-minded
emergency services workers and to
learn. “The idea of visiting some
of Australia’s best and well-known
icons and meeting world experts on
climate change was very exciting.”
Another police runner, Acting
Sergeant Matt Astill from the Force
Response Unit, describes the monthlong
event as a “moving classroom”.
At different places along the route,
there will be community meetings,
with scientists scheduled to deliver
seminars. As well, the runners are
visiting sites such as a wind farm
in western Victoria, a solar-thermal
project in Mildura and a geothermal
project in Queensland.
Safe Climate Australia is a not-forprofit
organisation, bringing together
scientists, business leaders and
academics in a two-year research
project aimed at turning Australia
into a clean energy economy.
The run is due to end on November
29 in Melbourne. If you would
like to sponsor the runners and
support a safe climate go to http://
www.safeclimateaustralia.
org/support-safe-climateaustralia/donate-to-safeclimate-australia/
November 2009 The Police Association Journal
www.tpav.org.au