Is it safe to lightly sand asbestos?

[mystery]

I did my painting apprenticeship back in the early to mid 1970's in Perth with State Housing Commission as it was known then. A big part of the job included dry scraping flaking paint off the old fibro homes and burning off the old paint on the weatherboards. We had no gloves or masks and we were breathing in the dust and it was all over our arms, face and clothes.

We had no OHS back then and no warnings of asbestos danger or protective clothing, you just did the job. Keeping my fingers crossed that all remains well.

Mystery

 

[Ausprop]

The asbestos corrugated roof of an outhouse burnt down on my property in the 1970's, I, with my then 11 year old son cleaned it up ... my son died of mesothelioma when he was 37, I am still alive. His oncologist told me some people are more susceptible to this disease, others it wont affect ... why take the chance.

That's really sad, I think if it were me I would find it hard to get out of bed each morning.

 

[Mush]

I did my painting apprenticeship back in the early to mid 1970's in Perth with State Housing Commission as it was known then. A big part of the job included dry scraping flaking paint off the old fibro homes and burning off the old paint on the weatherboards. We had no gloves or masks and we were breathing in the dust and it was all over our arms, face and clothes.

We had no OHS back then and no warnings of asbestos danger or protective clothing, you just did the job. Keeping my fingers crossed that all remains well.

Mystery

It is criminal Mystery.
I have also been exposed to asbestos many times in my life as a hands-on builder and I lost my Dad to mesothelioma.
The latency period,(the time from initial exposure to disease onset),is anything from 10 to 50 years.
Interestingly family pets are now being diagnosed,primarily dogs, and the latency period is only 8 years.average

 

[Ausprop]

Interestingly family pets are now being diagnosed,primarily dogs, and the latency period is only 8 years.average

they are very vulnerable as they tend to sniff along fence lines

 

[MWDB]

There are some really sad stories in here unfortunately. You know, you never will know when you will die. Sometimes it is actually just the luck of the draw. I understand the sentiment of don't drive a car because you are more likely to die on the road than by asbestos poisoning. However, this is flawed logic. OH&S is all about recognising the hazards, assessing the risk and acting accordingly. If you know of asbestos, are aware of the risk but work on it anyways without any PPE or other ways to mitigate the risk you might as well be driving on a rainy day with bald tyres. Are you more likely to die on the roads? Maybe. At least you weren't warned about it. If I am to die I would prefer it to be not as a result of my own stupidity.

can you elaborate on this? Link?

Unfortunately I cannot. My OHS teacher from my diploma was talking about it in class. I asked if he had any sources and he said WorkSafe would not provide them until the legislation is passed through. You can see the effects that it had on commercial properties though. The insurance sots for assessing asbestos is just so ridiculous as well. I would imagine costs for asbestos audits will go up as demands would increase and people would have to have the audits done in order to sell their houses.

Just so you are aware of what an audit and asbestos register involves: It is an assessment of every part of the house. An asbestos register would have every part of the house on it that contains asbestos so that any contractors, prospective buyers and renovators would have knowledge of what the house contained.