The Australian Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, this morning launched the latest Australian Mesothelioma Registry. SafetyAtWorkBlog took the opportunity to ask Safe Work Australia some specific questions about asbestos and government policy. Their responses are below. The government has awarded the contract for the new Australian Mesothelioma Registry to a consortium led by the Cancer Institute of NSW. According to a media release issued…
Safe Work Australia released two OHS statistical reports in June 2009 - Mesothelioma in Australia, Incidence 1982 to 2005, Deaths 1997 to 2006 and Notified Fatalities Statistical Report, July 2008 to December 2008. Both reports are recommended for those statistic junkies out there as the analysis and trends are sadly…
The union campaign on the eradication of asbestos from the island of Tasmania has entered the national political arena in Australia. On 29 October 2010, the Australian Minister for Workplace Relations, Chris Evans, announced that Geoff Fary, Assistant Secretary of the Australian Council for Trade Unions, will chair the newly…
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One thought on “Safe Work Australia releases official asbestos statistics”
On Tuesday evening as I drove home, I was listening to Background Briefing on ABC Radio National – the story of asbestos in Tasmania, and the role played by Goliath Portland Cement Limited.
Even with my fairly detailed knowledge of the history of asbestos issues in Australia, it was fascinating to hear first hand accounts of the workers still producing products and working unprotected into the 1980\’s.
Alex Walker, the Managing Director of Goliath Portland was well aware of the dangers in 1965 – his Personnel Manager advised that a report obtained \”…is merely one of many reports on world studies which have been conducted since 1935 when the association between the exposure to dust and carcinoma of the lung, mesothelioma of the pleura, tumour of the bladder and uterus and other fatal complaints, was first recognised.\”
Walker had correspondence with James Hardie management in that year. The advice given by the same personnel manager for Hardies was \”The best advice you can give your friend is to ignore the publicity. Dust is a fact. Denials merely stir up more publicity.\”
On 12 May 2010, Safe Work Australia released the official statistics on on the number of new cases of mesothelioma. The report is entitled Mesothelioma in Australia Incidence: 1982 – 2006, Mortality 1997 – 2007.
![p090616615[1] cover](https://safetyatworkblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/p0906166151-cover.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1)
On Tuesday evening as I drove home, I was listening to Background Briefing on ABC Radio National – the story of asbestos in Tasmania, and the role played by Goliath Portland Cement Limited.
Even with my fairly detailed knowledge of the history of asbestos issues in Australia, it was fascinating to hear first hand accounts of the workers still producing products and working unprotected into the 1980\’s.
Alex Walker, the Managing Director of Goliath Portland was well aware of the dangers in 1965 – his Personnel Manager advised that a report obtained \”…is merely one of many reports on world studies which have been conducted since 1935 when the association between the exposure to dust and carcinoma of the lung, mesothelioma of the pleura, tumour of the bladder and uterus and other fatal complaints, was first recognised.\”
Walker had correspondence with James Hardie management in that year. The advice given by the same personnel manager for Hardies was \”The best advice you can give your friend is to ignore the publicity. Dust is a fact. Denials merely stir up more publicity.\”
The audio download and transcript can be found at – http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2010/2890562.htm