Schools in Canberra and Brisbane close due to asbestos in decorative coloured sand.<\/p>\n
“The product may cause a risk to health as asbestos has been detected in some samples after laboratory testing,” the recall stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Importantly, respirable asbestos has not been detected in any of the tested samples. The release of respirable asbestos fibres is unlikely to occur in its current state, unless the sand is processed by mechanical means such as crushing or pulverising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The risk that any asbestos found that is likely to be airborne or fine enough for inhalation, is low.”Update on ACT school closures due this afternoon<\/p>\n
On Friday, the ACT took the extraordinary step of closing 16 schools and six preschools, as well as partially closing eight other schools over the potential asbestos contamination<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n One school in Queensland was also closed.<\/p>\n The South Australian Department for Education yesterday confirmed coloured sand products linked to the contamination scare had so far been identified at more than 100 sites in the state<\/a>, with loose sand found at “about 20 sites” and sand in containers at a further 88.\u00a0<\/p>\n No schools have been closed in SA, but the state’s education department has issued a hazard alert to “all schools, preschools and OSHC sites”.<\/p>\n “Licenced asbestos contractors will start removing recalled sand products from Department for Education sites tomorrow [Monday] starting with sites with loose sand,” an SA education department spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Campbell Primary School was one of more than a dozen schools closed on Friday.\u00a0 (ABC News: Monte Bovill)<\/p>\n In a post shared on social media last night, ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said asbestos removal teams had been “working around the clock … to safely remove recalled sand products and clean learning spaces”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Every effort is being made to have our schools ready to reopen on Monday,” she said. Asbestos removal teams spent Saturday cleaning Campbell Primary School.\u00a0 (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n Ms Berry acknowledged that the situation had been “worrying” for families and school staff, and she thanked the community for its “patience and understanding”.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Based on currently available information, the risk to human health from exposure to these products is assessed as low,” she reiterated.\u00a0<\/p>\n The latest information on ACT school closures can be found on the Education Directorate website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n What to know about the coloured sand recall<\/a><\/p>\n Sixteen public schools in Canberra are closed and several others are partially closed due to potential asbestos contamination in coloured sand sold at dozens of stores across Australia. Here’s what we know.<\/p>\n At a press conference this morning, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said it was important that people were given up-to-date information.<\/p>\n “Also, that there is a proper analysis done on how this was imported and distributed,” he said.<\/p>\n Information on Queensland school closures can be found here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Safework SA executive director Glenn Farrell said the sand products “would have gone through rigorous testing” when they were first imported into Australia.<\/p>\n “I think this is an example of how additional monitoring might be needed to ensure all the products are being monitored on some form of regular basis,” he said.<\/p>\n “Whenever asbestos comes into this country, the relevant regulator where the import took place makes enquiries \u2014 in this case it was Victoria. So Victoria is undertaking an investigation with the importer and the supplier of these products.”<\/p>\n On Sunday, SA Health said it was not recommending any clinical assessments of people exposed to the sand products.<\/p>\n Kmart’s recall notice advises customers to stop using the affected magic sand products immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n People are advised to:<\/p>\n Wear disposable gloves and a mask and either return in the original tub or place the sand in a heavy-duty plastic bag and double tape it securelyNot dispose of the products in general wasteFind an asbestos waste disposal facility on The Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More coloured sand products have been recalled due to asbestos contamination concerns, as the ACT’s education department is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2666,40659,64,63,165900,99,2667,60587,165901,80988,165899,13441],"class_list":["post-287672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-act","tag-asbestos","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-building-set","tag-business","tag-canberra","tag-contamination","tag-magic-sand","tag-sand","tag-sand-castle","tag-target"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n