The Cairns Post

Former tip worker Peter Ferguson claims the protective clothing he was given was inadequate for handling asbestos. Picture: Justin Brierty

Ex-tip worker tells of asbestos fears

Christopher O'Leary

24Jun08

A FORMER worker at Alice Springs' tip is concerned his workmates are not being protected against potentially deadly asbestos.

Peter Ferguson, who was employed last December to help manage the tip face, resigned last month because he believed workers were not protected properly when they handled about a tonne of material believed to contain asbestos.

Mr Ferguson said tip workers were given face masks, garden gloves, and protective glasses.

He said this was not adequate and that workers were also unaware where asbestos might be buried.

He said: ``They were cheap masks you can still smell the bull dust through them.

``There are better masks and with Bowerbird we had better protective gear.''

Under Territory legislation, workers are required to wear protective respirator masks and disposal overalls when dealing with less than 10 square metres of asbestos-containing materials.

Over that figure a specialist asbestos removalist has to be called in.

Darryl Subloo, manager of Subloo which has the contract for the tip, said the protection provided for his workers met national standards. Under the contract with the Alice Springs Town council, Subloo tracked its buried waste.

Mr Subloo said: ``We have no control of what happened with previous contractors. When we took over a lot of codes we have now were not in place.''

Mr Ferguson said mapping of asbestos waste was necessary.

He said: ``We first found asbestos where the green waste was buried.

``I thought it was asbestos because the material was wrapped in orange plastic, which was the same stuff it was wrapped in when I worked at the tip when Cleanaway managed it.''