A school in southwestern Sydney has been shut down and part of a hospital cordoned off after asbestos contaminated mulch was discovered at both sites. The mulch at Liverpool west public school was tested over the weekend. Students at the school will now learn from home until Wednesday.
Category
đź“ş
TVTranscript
00:00 A dangerous discovery closes Liverpool West Public School.
00:06 We acted as soon as we were aware of this.
00:11 It is or was found in a garden bed in the playground.
00:16 Some concerned parents only learnt the news at morning drop off.
00:19 No, I wasn't aware.
00:22 A single piece of bonded asbestos was found among the mulch which was laid late last year.
00:27 All of it is now being removed.
00:29 The advice I had as Secretary for New South Wales Health was that it carries very low
00:34 risk to the school community.
00:37 But one piece is one piece too many.
00:40 It's been over a month since asbestos was first detected in 10 tonnes of mulch spread
00:44 across the Roselle Interchange Parklands.
00:47 Asbestos has since been discovered in mulch at more than a dozen sites around Sydney,
00:52 including railway substations at Dulwich Hill, Canterbury and Campsie, and alongside the
00:56 Prospect Highway.
00:57 Today, Campbelltown Hospital was also added to the list.
01:01 The EPA says there's a common denominator.
01:04 Well look, it's fair to say the entire supply chain is under intense scrutiny.
01:09 We're working still through multiple lines of inquiry, but the supplier in question is
01:15 a common link across all the sites where we've so far had positive detections.
01:19 But the supplier insists independent tests of its mulch have come back clear.
01:24 Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility is confident that when its products are delivered to contractors
01:28 to lay, they are free of asbestos.
01:31 The company has no visibility of, and does not control, how its products are used on
01:35 sites once delivered.
01:37 The department does not believe the company has supplied other schools, but it can't guarantee
01:41 they're contamination free.
01:43 If there is a school that is impacted, be assured that education, your school, will
01:48 act immediately, straight away, to remedy the situation and keep your children safe.
01:55 The EPA will have to finish its investigation before any charges can be laid.
01:59 For more information, visit www.fema.gov
02:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]