Source
r/Wellington•
interpreted

Council exposing people to aspestos in Lyall Bay

HELP!

There's a building on the corner of McGregor St and Kingsford Smith St in Lyall Bay that is being worked on due to aspestos.

It's unwrapped and they've been ripping apart the roof today (sorry no pictures) allowing all the dust and aspestos to fly away in the wind.

From what I've heard (see "uncertainty"), that building is council property and they're supposed to have it wrapped.

I walk directly past this building every day, so I'd rather not get sick.

Does anyone know the proper practice for removing aspestos, and if the council really is risking the health of everyone working in the area?

There's a cafe directly opposite the building too, so plenty of foot traffic.

Posted Apr 21, 2017, 7:48 AM UTC

1515
voy1d•

Asbestos

11
interpretedOP🌶️💩🔥•

God damn it I even double checked...

6
civonakle•

Call the Council and they'll send someone to look at it... Rather than posting it on r.

11
JeChercheWally•

This.

Since this is a temporary thing and you only walk past it, then the likeliness of you developing cancer due to this is pretty much zero. But also we don't know the concentration of asbestos in the air, for all we know it's well within safe limits and even people who are there all day, every day are fine, so it's best to check with the council.

5
TooManyAlts•

There is more than one type of asbestos, and for friable asbestos (the bad stuff) there is no safe exposure limit as a single fibre can be carcinogenic.

OP, if you don't get any joy from the council, call Worksafe NZ or PM me. (I don't work for them but I do work in the field)

11
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
JeChercheWally•

True, I only read as far as the airborne contamination standard for asbestos being an average concentration over any eight-hour period of 0.1 respirable asbestos fibres per millilitre of air, and that is the limit on the amount of respirable asbestos fibres permitted in a workplace’s air.

All people exposed to it still need to attempt to eliminate their exposure through protective gear.

But I still stand by OP's chances of getting ill from brief exposure is pretty much zero, everyone gets exposure to it at some point.

1
interpretedOP🌶️💩🔥•

That's the problem. They are the council.

-4
SolarWizard•

Perhaps there is a public health department rather than the building department.

6
TheBananaMonkey•

Call WorkSafe then. Why not call both?

2
f33dbackplays annoying repetitive electronic music•

That building is owned by Wellington Airport Ltd, not council.

Call the council though to report concerns.

1
04fuxake•

Asbestos removal is taken pretty seriously so if it's uncovered then there probably isn't an asbestos risk at that point in the clean up.

5
civonakle•

Yeah, honestly, if you're not certain if it's Council related, then Council are could be unaware of it. You're also concerned it might be toxic. Regardless, you can call the Council the council about it without the drama.

4
CharlieBrownBoy•

I'm not sure what's the story, but could it be that it's something like the foundations or pipework that has asbestos and therefore at this stage they don't need to have it wrapped up? I'd call the council if you're that concerned.

3
joshjoshjosh42•

Depends on the quantity and location of the asbestos elements. Either way, they shouldn't be disassembling an asbestos-prone building with the potential for it to blow around into populated areas freely if the asbestos elements are in the roof- you're not allowed to have airborne concentrations of asbestos above a certain level, and from the sounds of it if you can see particles coming off the roof then that would be way above what is allowed (next to nothing pretty much). The way people get sick from asbestos is from inhaling the minute, fine particles of asbestos that cause issues. Anyone exposed to asbestos is required by law to be wearing the requisite protection and filtering, and there's a heck of a lot of risk management when you're doing work in populated areas.

I would call the council and tell them to double check on that site, sounds like trouble to me.

Source: Worksafe NZ

3
monotone__robot•

I think this might be an overreaction. Asbestos removal is a pretty serious job and as I understand it has some pretty stringent rules about how it's done and who can do it. Staff on-site working in the building are probably aware of where the asbestos is and what they can and can't do about it. Ripping off the roof may be a matter of no concern if the asbestos is - for example - only present in the form of insulation on pipes beneath the floor.

In spite of this if you are concerned go ahead and report it. While I personally don't believe any company or employee thereof would be so reckless with asbestos, on the off-chance that you're actually right then the council (or another more relevant authority that they can connect you with) need to know, and if there's nothing to be concerned about at least you can be reassured of this.

3