Australians urged to prioritise asbestos safety during National Asbestos Awareness Week

Asbestos-related diseases account for around 4000 deaths per year in Australia.

Next week is National Asbestos Awareness Week, and SafeWork SA is urging Australians to comply with all existing asbestos regulations.

The theme for this year’s National Asbestos Awareness Week, ‘Think Twice About Asbestos,’ acts as a reminder to tradies and homeowners to ‘do things the right way by ensuring proper and lawful disposal of asbestos.’

SafeWork SA Executive Director Martyn Campbell said National Asbestos Awareness Week provides the opportunity to think about how to eliminate asbestos diseases.

‘Australia still has one of the highest death rates of asbestos-related diseases per capita in the world,’ he said.

‘We have a responsibility to protect the long-term future health of South Australian residents. Regulators, government departments, industry, workers, organisations and the community at large will all need to work together to make the state safe from asbestos.’

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