02 Oct 2019

The team that created the Australian Asbestos Network website has now compiled a comprehensive account of asbestos in Australia with chapters from prominent experts in the disciplines of history, journalism, medicine, law and public health. The book also features many of the website’s first hand accounts of those whose lives have been touched by the mineral, as workers, asbestos disease sufferers, and lawyers and campaigners directly engaged in the struggle to ban its use. The book tracks the history of asbestos from the early 20th century when asbestos was mined in Australia to the post-war housing boom which saw asbestos become the material of choice in cities and suburbs around the country. The book then deals with its controversial legacy: the dire medical consequences from exposure, the cover-ups and the protracted legal battles for compensation, and the ongoing risks to public health from the asbestos that remains in our workplaces, schools and homes to this day. Asbestos in Australia: From Boom to Dust, edited by Lenore Layman and Gail Phillips,  Monash University Publishing, October 2019. For more information, go to Monash University Publishing. For a recent book review, go to https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/current-issue/478-environmental-studies/5883-graeme-davison-reviews-asbestos-in-australiA

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14 Jul 2014

4 November 2010: Madison Square Garden will be reopened Friday after an asbestos scare forced the postponement of an National Basketball Association game Tuesday night, according to a statement released by the team.

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14 Jul 2014

9 December 2010: Doctors in Canada are accusing their Government of hypocrisy over its approach to asbestos. (audio and transcript)

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14 Jul 2014

9 December 2010: … a business leader has asked the government in Quebec to support a new mine, which would send five million tonnes of asbestos to Asia.

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14 Jul 2014

26 February 2011: School children begin inspired protests against asbestos factory in Bihar, India.

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14 Jul 2014

28 April 2011: Japanese workers tackling the Herculean task of clearing millions of tonnes of debris from last month’s earthquake and tsunami also face health risks from asbestos and dioxins.

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14 Jul 2014

13 February 2012: Italian courts have found two men guilty of failing to comply with safety rules.

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14 Jul 2014

28 February 2012: New reforms in UK force sufferers to pay out thousands of pounds in order to just claim for compensation.

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14 Jul 2014

21 March 2012: Order of Australia medalist, member of first Australian expedition to Mount Everest and best selling author Lincoln Hall dies of mesothelioma after year-long battle. He had been exposed to asbestos as a kid when building cubby houses.

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