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Speaker 1: As if parents and teachers don't have enough to stress about.

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Speaker 1: Into term four, we're now being told that kids may

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Speaker 1: have been exposed to colorful playsund with potential traces of thebestos.

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Speaker 1: Mark Fleming from Oceania Environmental Consultants is an expert.

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Speaker 2: Morning, good morning, How are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Good? So what do you reckon we're actually dealing

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Speaker 1: with here? What is this asbestos?

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Speaker 2: Okay, well, it's i'd imagine, Well, it sounds like it's

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Speaker 2: come through from kmart which have imported it, probably from China.

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Speaker 2: China is still one of the only countries in the

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Speaker 2: world that's still meaning asbestos. And I suppose asbestos has

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Speaker 2: already comes into three or four categories. And I think

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Speaker 2: what we're dealing with here is a tremolite or a

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Speaker 2: or a white asbestos called chrysotile. The other two are

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Speaker 2: brown and blue, which are way worse than that. You

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Speaker 2: normally see those in some cement sheeting and things like

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Speaker 2: that we're building materials. But this is, I would say,

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Speaker 2: is a type of asbestos that's been new with the

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Speaker 2: colored sand and just to make it adhere to the

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Speaker 2: color to the sand.

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Speaker 1: And then's going to be a question, why would they

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Speaker 1: be using this because usually it's associated with building products.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. I mean, it's it's a hardy product,

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Speaker 2: so I was probably saying, well, the color will adhere

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Speaker 2: to the sand better and stay on the sand as

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Speaker 2: a play you know, as a playing sand. So it's

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Speaker 2: I would say it's very safe until it's broken down. Now,

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Speaker 2: what will happen now is the testing is done. Now

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Speaker 2: the labs will see that and they probably won't be

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Speaker 2: able to see it straight under microscope as it is,

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Speaker 2: so they'll burn it down and melt it down and

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Speaker 2: then that will extract the fiber and then they'll know

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Speaker 2: exactly what fiber it is are dealing with, and I

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Speaker 2: would say it will be that white chrisotol, which is

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Speaker 2: the most common one. It's sort of it's got a

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Speaker 2: different fiber to the other blue and brown as bestos.

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Speaker 2: So in that respect, it's a lot safer. Not to

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Speaker 2: say that, you know, over time they can incubate and

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Speaker 2: does affect people over time in proseema and that sort

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Speaker 2: of thing. But I would say it's not broken down,

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Speaker 2: so in the schools, I would say it's still very

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Speaker 2: safe and parents shouldn't worry too much about it. But

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Speaker 2: we'll find more information about it when the testing results

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Speaker 2: come back in.

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Speaker 1: This has been reassuring to say, because this has been

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Speaker 1: available on shelves. We've got some of the stuff at home.

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Speaker 1: I've heard that we shouldn't be vacuuming it up.

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Speaker 2: What happens, Yeah, what happens there is, but that is

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Speaker 2: from asbestos stuff. So what happens is because it's such

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Speaker 2: a fine fiber that can actually get right through the

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Speaker 2: actual filters that are in the vacuum cleaner. So you

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Speaker 2: basically just hoovering it up and then blowing it back

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Speaker 2: out into your living room or a bedroom or something.

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Speaker 2: So again it has been vacuumed up, then it's probably

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Speaker 2: still safe. There might be still in the carpets and

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Speaker 2: things like that and you're in your house, but until

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Speaker 2: it's here, she's tooken down and the fibers are able

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Speaker 2: to escape, it's still probably very safe.

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Speaker 1: You talk about burning it down to identify the fibers.

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Speaker 1: Do you mean burning down the classroom itself?

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Speaker 3: What a shame you take there, that'd be the worst thing. No,

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Speaker 3: you're just taking the sand and it goes into a

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Speaker 3: special burner that their labs have and then it will

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Speaker 3: melt it down and then all it will be left

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Speaker 3: with is probably the sand and the fire. They'll look

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Speaker 3: at that under a microscope and you'll be able to

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Speaker 3: see the actual fibers there.

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Speaker 2: If they're there. That there might be a very small

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Speaker 2: amount of asbestos, but like dechromatic tiles on houses, you

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Speaker 2: know it is there, but it's a very small amount.

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Speaker 2: You have to take a lot of product to try

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Speaker 2: and find it there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, you've got a few kids rather excited for

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Speaker 1: a second there, But I imagine there has been some

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Speaker 1: excitement with shuffling around classrooms and whatnot out of an

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Speaker 1: abundance of looking forward to everybody getting the AOK and

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Speaker 1: back to business as usual in the near future. Really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your perspective, Mak Fleming.