Fire and Emergency staff on the scene of the fatal fire at Wellington's Loafers Lodge yesterday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Fire and Emergency staff on the scene of the fatal fire at Wellington's Loafers Lodge yesterday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Officials say there’s no cause for alarm over the potential risk of airborne asbestos contamination following yesterday’s tragic fire at the Loafers Lodge in Wellington. Here’s what to know.
What is asbestos?
It’s a name given to a naturally occurring group of fibrous minerals: namely chrysolite (white), amosite (brown) and the most dangerous form, crocidolite (blue).
In New Zealand, asbestos has been used mainly in construction materials for roofing and cladding, and in products such as decorative coatings, pipe and boiler insulation, brake linings, gaskets, floor tiles and asbestos cement pipes.
Once the health risks of asbestos were known, its use was gradually stopped, and other materials replaced it – but many products and appliances with asbestos content are still around, particularly in homes built before 1984.
It’s not yet clear if the Loafers Lodge building contained any asbestos.
What are those health risks?
While buried asbestos isn’t dangerous, if disturbed by sanding, sawing or drilling, fibres can be released into the air.
While larger fibres are handled by the body’s defences in the nose and upper airways, tiny fibres can be inhaled and become lodged deep within the lungs. Such microscopic fibres will never break down and cannot be removed.
If they accumulate, however, they can lead to lung cancer, mesothelioma – a cancer of the chest lining or abdominal lining - or asbestosis, an irreversible, possibly fatal lung scarring.
“The greater the exposure, and the longer the time of exposure, the greater the risk of developing an asbestos-related disease.”
While there’d been no safe lower limit of exposure identified with certainty - all exposure was thought to add to the overall risk of disease development - the risk from a single, low-level exposure was considered to be “extremely low”.
“Intact asbestos-containing material is not a risk merely by its presence,” the ministry said.
“Potential health problems occur if asbestos fibres become airborne.”
How has it been causing problems in New Zealand?
Around the time asbestos was banned in 2016, new health and safety requirements were introduced to toughen rules designed to manage asbestos-related risk.
The Asbestos Sector Review found better training and protections were needed for tradespeople and DIYers who may be inadvertently exposed to asbestos.
While health researchers had earlier predicted that 12,000 people could die from asbestos-related illness in New Zealand, with the death toll expected to peak by 2015, more recent projections found that peak wouldn’t come until sometime between 2030 and 2040.
Around 220 people are thought to die each year in New Zealand from preventable asbestos-related disease. Photo / RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Last year, WorkSafe NZ chief executive Phil Parkes described it as the “number one work-related killer”, with around 220 people dying each year from preventable asbestos-related disease.
While public health officers have been carrying out tests following yesterday’s fire, a Wellington City Council spokesperson said there was “no cause for alarm” over any health risks.
“Health effects from asbestos released from fires is generally considered low risk.”
A 2014 ministry briefing paper said that materials containing asbestos deteriorated during fire and could release asbestos fibres into the air, meaning it had to be identified early.
It said the degree of exposure to the public would depend upon the concentration of asbestos in the air – either directly from the plume during the fire, or as a result of “re-suspension” following a fire.
Yet, it said, there was no hard evidence to suggest any severe acute health impacts after fires associated with asbestos-containing fallout, nor was there any evidence of long-term health risks following them.
Studies concluded that such long-term risks would be “minimal” if sites were cleaned up appropriately.
