A project to refurbish an old residential house into a commercial office space at Wahroonga has led to mistakes in identifying asbestos containing material.

Workers from an electrical contractor attended a site induction where there was no mention of asbestos on site. There was also no asbestos register available. The builder indicated that there were no hazardous substances on site including asbestos besides the far corner of the site where excavations were taking place. A walk through pre-start risk assessment also failed to identify potential asbestos containing material on site.

Several weeks after the project commenced an asbestos warning sticker was discovered by the electricians and reported to the builder. The builder responded by confirming that no asbestos was onsite and that the sticker was irrelevant. 

Some days later, the electricians found some broken pieces of an old fibro ceiling that was encapsulated by gyprock in the ceiling space near the manhole. An asbestos removalist from a neighbouring site happened to be present at the time and inspected the site.

The asbestos removalist identified that the old fibro ceiling could be asbestos. He also identified that parts of the eave that was being removed and ceiling insulation could all contain asbestos and that workers on site were probably exposed.

Work at the site stopped immediately. Workers were instructed to utilise onsite showers and a change of clothes was organised and sent to site. Workers were sent home.

Subsequent testing of the unidentified material identified that the insulation and the eaves that had been disturbed did not contain asbestos. The test did confirm the presence of asbestos in the ceiling soffits. An asbestos register was finally produced by the builder which indicated presence of asbestos on site and confirmed the results from the testing.

Although the result of this incident resulted in little to no exposure of asbestos, it could have easily been a different story. Key safety procedures were not followed. Work should not have commenced without the asbestos register. The induction should have alerted workers to the presence of asbestos. The pre-start inspection should have identified potential asbestos containing material (ACM) and treated the hazards before work.

Learnings:

WHS Regulation 39 - A person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure that information, training and instruction provided to a worker is suitable and adequate, having regard to:

• the nature of the work carried out by the worker

• the nature of the risks associated with the work at the time the information, training or instruction is provided, and

• the control measures implemented.​

The person must, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure the information, training and instruction is provided in a way that is readily understandable by any person to whom it is provided.

WHS Regulation 447-457 - Prior to any demolition or refurbishment work being carried out, a person with management and control of a workplace must:

• review the asbestos register

• provide a copy of the asbestos register to the person carrying out the demolition or refurbishment work,

• ensure asbestos that is likely to be disturbed is identified and, so far as is reasonably practicable, removed.​

The person conducting a business or undertaking who will carry out demolition or refurbishment at a workplace must obtain a copy of the asbestos register before they commence the work.