Mark Flemming - Asbestos Sand

Luke caught up with asbestos expert Mark Flemming from Oceania Environmental Consultants to ask about the risk in this recalled coloured sand which has affected hundreds of schools and daycare centres across the country, including some right here in Mid Canterbury. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
As if parents and teachers don't have enough to stress about.
Into term four, we're now being told that kids may
have been exposed to colorful playsund with potential traces of thebestos.
Mark Fleming from Oceania Environmental Consultants is an expert.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Morning, good morning, How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Yeah? Good? So what do you reckon we're actually dealing
with here? What is this asbestos?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Okay, well, it's i'd imagine, Well, it sounds like it's
come through from kmart which have imported it, probably from China.
China is still one of the only countries in the
world that's still meaning asbestos. And I suppose asbestos has
already comes into three or four categories. And I think
what we're dealing with here is a tremolite or a

(00:43):
or a white asbestos called chrysotile. The other two are
brown and blue, which are way worse than that. You
normally see those in some cement sheeting and things like
that we're building materials. But this is, I would say,
is a type of asbestos that's been new with the
colored sand and just to make it adhere to the

(01:05):
color to the sand.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
And then's going to be a question, why would they
be using this because usually it's associated with building products.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, that's the thing. I mean, it's it's a hardy product,
so I was probably saying, well, the color will adhere
to the sand better and stay on the sand as
a play you know, as a playing sand. So it's
I would say it's very safe until it's broken down. Now,
what will happen now is the testing is done. Now

(01:33):
the labs will see that and they probably won't be
able to see it straight under microscope as it is,
so they'll burn it down and melt it down and
then that will extract the fiber and then they'll know
exactly what fiber it is are dealing with, and I
would say it will be that white chrisotol, which is
the most common one. It's sort of it's got a
different fiber to the other blue and brown as bestos.

(01:58):
So in that respect, it's a lot safer. Not to
say that, you know, over time they can incubate and
does affect people over time in proseema and that sort
of thing. But I would say it's not broken down,
so in the schools, I would say it's still very
safe and parents shouldn't worry too much about it. But

(02:21):
we'll find more information about it when the testing results
come back in.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
This has been reassuring to say, because this has been
available on shelves. We've got some of the stuff at home.
I've heard that we shouldn't be vacuuming it up.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
What happens, Yeah, what happens there is, but that is
from asbestos stuff. So what happens is because it's such
a fine fiber that can actually get right through the
actual filters that are in the vacuum cleaner. So you
basically just hoovering it up and then blowing it back
out into your living room or a bedroom or something.
So again it has been vacuumed up, then it's probably

(02:56):
still safe. There might be still in the carpets and
things like that and you're in your house, but until
it's here, she's tooken down and the fibers are able
to escape, it's still probably very safe.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
You talk about burning it down to identify the fibers.
Do you mean burning down the classroom itself?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
What a shame you take there, that'd be the worst thing. No,
you're just taking the sand and it goes into a
special burner that their labs have and then it will
melt it down and then all it will be left
with is probably the sand and the fire. They'll look
at that under a microscope and you'll be able to
see the actual fibers there.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
If they're there. That there might be a very small
amount of asbestos, but like dechromatic tiles on houses, you
know it is there, but it's a very small amount.
You have to take a lot of product to try
and find it there.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, right, you've got a few kids rather excited for
a second there, But I imagine there has been some
excitement with shuffling around classrooms and whatnot out of an
abundance of looking forward to everybody getting the AOK and
back to business as usual in the near future. Really
appreciate your perspective, Mak Fleming.