A family-run business in regional Queensland has seen their livelihood limited after their offices were accidentally covered in asbestos-containing material.
The incident occured when a painting company adjacent to the office space used a high-pressure water cleaner on the asbestos roof of the property, contaminating the nearby area.
Both the affected property and the offices next door have been fenced off by the local council, per the advice of Worksafe Queensland, while asbestos testing and remediation works are undertaken.
The operator of the family business, Jason Killick, explained that he was first alerted to the potential contamination when his pregnant daughter, who works for the business, noticed a ‘mud-like’ substance on the side of their office building, driveway and air-conditioning unit.
He quickly realised it was mud and not asbestos. “Sometime in the next three weeks council has arranged to clean our building with a giant wet vacuum to suck up everything, they even have to remove large patches of our soil and grass that are contaminated,” he said.
“The air-conditioning will be deconstructed and thoroughly cleaned, also the asbestos in the kerbing around us.”
He also noted that the council’s fencing around the property had led customers and locals to assume that his business had closed.
“We can technically use the building, but for now we are choosing to mostly work remotely,” Mr Killick said.
“We are expecting to reopen the office fully anywhere from the next three weeks,” he said.
The contaminated site is being remediated by a licensed asbestos professional, and an asbestos assessor will also need to set up air monitoring and undertake a clearance inspection upon completion of remediation work.