Women lead new ‘wave’ in asbestos

Andrew Mathieson
AT LEAST 15 Geelong residents have come forward fearful they have been exposed to deadly asbestos, according to a prominent law firm.
Lawyer Tracy Madden said blue-collar workers and an increasing number of females were joining Slater and Gordon’s asbestos register.
Ms Madden said the response to the register had left the firm “a bit surprised”.
“I’ve been in this department for nearly 20 years and I’ve definitely seen a significant increase in people who have got asbestos-related illnesses, especially in that whole Bellarine Peninsula area,” she said.
“In my mind it’s for two reasons: first, because Geelong was a terrific manufacturing hub in its day and still remains quite industrial.
“Secondly, it’s the great appeal of the place and people retire there but if they develop an illness and it’s not related to their time in Ford they’re still getting picked up by the medical community in Geelong.”
Slater and Gordon lawyers had been running a campaign for former Ford Geelong employees who may have been exposed to asbestos in maintenance or on the production line.
Ms Madden said the firm was already investigating the claims of a female worker who alleged she was exposed to deadly asbestos fibres at Ford’s Geelong warehouse.
“Geelong had a big manufacturing industry and I’d say anyone could be exposed to asbestos at any time.”
Ms Madden said Geelong historically had high numbers of proven life-threatening cases.
Cancer Council Victoria’s most recent figures, for 2002 until 2006, included 14 claimants in the Barwon region diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer from exposure of the protective lining of organs to asbestos.
Ms Madden said builders, carpenters, electricians and plumbers were most at risk but a “third wave” of women who washed their husband’s work clothes and children exposed to asbestos in old homes had appeared in recent years.
“It’s a long wait between when you were exposed and when you actually develop the illness,” she said.
Asbestos was most common in the building industry as sheets or installation, in manufacturing for brakes in cars and in textile factories’ steam pipes.
Ms Madden said homes manufactured before 1982 were at risk because cement sheets in wet areas behind tiles could include asbestos.