Schools, hospitals caught up in Sydney’s asbestos-tainted mulch crisis

Urgent testing of garden mulch will occur in seven Sydney schools as a supermarket and another hospital are added to the list of NSW sites with asbestos-tainted material.
All but one of the schools will remain open while samples are taken on Friday of the mulch that originated with supplier Greenlife Resource Recovery.
Greenlife is the common thread between all positive detections across Sydney and Nowra, though the company denies its product was contaminated under its watch.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The school testing was precautionary and no asbestos contamination had yet been identified, the NSW environment regulator told parents.
Once results are finalised, the Environment Protection Authority will advise what further action may be required, with schools to communicate the most current information.
The schools range from public and private, primary and secondary, and follow a positive result at Liverpool West Public School this week.
St Luke’s Catholic College in Marsden Park chose to keep students away on Friday due to the amount of mulch across its campus.
“Those that remain open are advised to keep students and staff away from garden beds in and around the school sites, and to expect to see EPA officers on the ground throughout the day,” the EPA said.

The decision was supported by the government’s multi-agency asbestos taskforce, which was stood up on Thursday to coordinate the mounting problem.
It includes representatives from the NSW Asbestos Coordination Committee, Safework NSW, Local Government NSW as well as fire, health and education officials.
Since bonded asbestos was first found at the Rozelle Parklands in Sydney’s inner west in early January, the EPA’s criminal investigation has grown into the largest in its history.
The number of positive sites grew from 22 on Friday with positive results reported at St John of God Hospital in Richmond, Woolworths at Kellyville and a Transport for NSW park in Wiley Park.
All landowners have been advised to put in place measures to prevent public access and begin removal of the contaminated mulch, the EPA said.
Already 200 sites have been tested with hundreds more expected to require inspection.
NSW Greens MP and Environment spokeswoman Sue Higginson said the multi-agency task force and regulator will be overwhelmed by the continued movement of asbestos-contaminated material across the state unless a temporary suspension is put in place.
“When contact tracing was introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government rightly instituted restrictions on movement to avoid the crisis from growing out of control,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
“We need the government to take a stand and limit the movement of materials, that are likely contaminated with asbestos, so that contact tracing can do its job and resolve the failed regulation and corrupted supply chain.”
The EPA recently learnt a handful of regional sites, including in Nowra, and residential properties had received the mulch product.
City of Sydney will start taping off and testing garden beds in 38 locations on Friday morning.
Testing would also occur in another 33 parks where contaminated mulch may have been used, in a process taking several weeks.
Premier Chris Minns on Thursday said hundreds of sites had potentially asbestos-contaminated mulch.
The EPA however said that was a “worst case scenario” noting nine out of every 10 sites testing so far had been cleared.
One difficulty facing authorities is the supplier linked to all 25 confirmed sites distributed its recycled mulch product to 30 companies, some of whom passed it further down the chain.