JULY 7, 2015 \ BRIMBANK.STARWEEKLY.COM.AU
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Asbestos health link ‘possible’
1190723-PB28-15 10024457-10
A link between workplace practices at Sunshine North’s former Wunderlich asbestos factory and locally high rates of asbestos-related disease could not be ruled out, a government report has determined. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) admitted “it is entirely possible” people who lived near the factory were most likely to have worked there or played on the site while it was operating and “sustained repeated and significant exposures resulting in their disease”. The report comes as former Sunshine North resident Raffaele Campagna seeks damages over the factory’s operation. The elderly resident, who lived about 125 metres from the factory for “many years”, is now suffering from asbestosis and severe lung damage. Legal company Slater and Gordon has received “dozens of inquiries from former and present residents of Sunshine North” and is representing a number of people who developed asbestos-related diseases, a company spokeswoman said. Star Weekly also spoke to another former resident, who played at the factory as a child and remembered a “paddock that was all white”. He lived in one street, which he’s unwilling to name, within a few hundred metres of the plant for the first 12 years of his life, until 1980. “There’s been a lot of deaths here,” he said. “I’m aware of two women in the street who have breast tumours, another lady died of cancer in her mid- 30s, two with asbestos in their lungs, and a man in his 80s died of stomach cancer.” Run-off from waste slurries stored
in settling ponds at Wunderlich was discharged into Stony Creek up to the end of 1978, the DHHS report found. Victorian Cancer Registry data revealed higher-than-expected rates of mesothelioma within three kilometres of the site between 2001 and 2013. “Although these cases of mesothelioma involved people who lived in close proximity to the factory site, exposure from the Wunderlich site is possible but not certain,” the DHHS report found.
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Exposure from the Wunderlich site is possible … but not certain - DHHS report
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“It is not possible to exclude alternative asbestos exposures.” The report also revealed a higher number of hospitalisations for asbestosrelated diseases among people living in the 3020 postcode for the five years to 2013-14, compared to the rest of the state. DDHS’s Dr Danny Csutoros said mesothelioma was the biggest indicator of asbestos exposure but could take “decades to develop”. The data also showed more lung cancer cases – 436 of people living within three kilometres of the plant – when 357 were “expected” between 2001 and 2013. “However, a lack of information about the smoking history of people diagnosed with the disease makes it difficult to interpret these results as smoking is the main risk factor for lung cancer,” the report found. ■ More reports: P4
(Mathew Lynn)
By Ben Cameron
JACINDA RICHARDS, VAM BIAK, RITO HUYNH, RUAL AND MAYA HAJIZADEH (FRONT)
Next Gen still hip to hop The streets of Sunshine just got hipper with news that not-for-profit cultural group L2R Next Gen will run free hip-hop dance classes at the Visy Care Hub for people aged 15 to 25 every Tuesday during the school term, from July 14. The group’s president, Jacinda Richards, says dance is a language everyone speaks. “These workshops aim to foster a sense of fun, joy and creativity in young people’s lives, while promoting social connection, mental and physical health and respect for self and others,” she said. Details: www.L2R.com.au Ben Cameron
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