Asbestos certifiers emptying sand pit at Evatt Primary School. Photo: Screenshot, Canberra Notice Board Group, Facebook.
Licenced asbestos removalists have been spotted bagging up the entire contents of an outdoor sand pit at Belconnen’s Evatt Primary School.
The video, shared to the Canberra Notice Board Group on Facebook this morning (18 November), showed two people wearing full orange protective suits and face masks while shovelling sand from the pit into clear plastic bags.
A sign on the school fence read, “Danger: Asbestos removal in progress”.
“Explains why the process is taking so long, sand pits being emptied as well. Small job!” the video’s caption reads.
At a press conference today (18 November), ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said she did not know about the incident, except that it might suggest contaminated sand may have found its way outside, too.
“I’m not aware of that, unless there’s been contamination, or the product has been used outside of the school in sandpit areas, then that would be the likely reason for the sand being removed.”
ACT Education director-general Jo Wood added she didn’t have any information on the case either, except to reiterate it “may be there’s some outside contamination”.
“It’s a very thorough clearance process,” Ms Wood said.
“We are relying on the licensed [asbestos] assessors to tell us what remediation is required and if they’ve identified that some of it needs to be remediated outside … that’s what would happen.”
Minister for Education Yvette Berry and Education Directorate director-general Jo Wood. Photo: James Coleman.
An ACT Education spokesperson later confirmed with Region that children poured some of the coloured sand into the outdoor pit at Evatt Primary School, and all of the sand was removed as a precaution.
Since Friday, 14 November, the ACT Government has closed more than 70 schools and preschools after it was discovered that play sand used in these facilities contained trace amounts of asbestos.
The products, since stripped from the shelves of retailers including Officeworks and Kmart, include Kadink Sand (1.3kg), Educational Colours Rainbow Sand (1.3kg) and Creatistics Coloured Sand (1kg).
“The products were recalled because they may contain tremolite asbestos, a naturally occurring asbestos, which was detected in some samples after laboratory testing,” the ACCC said.
Images of the play sand that may contain traces of asbestos. Photo: ACCC.
Initially, the ACT was the only jurisdiction to close schools due to the alert, with staff in NSW schools instead being told to “immediately and safely remove these sand products if they have them”. However, one independent school in Queensland and another independent school in Tasmania have since closed.
The ACT Government maintains the risk to children is “very low”, but local legislation requires them to exercise an abundance of caution.
“Our legislation is quite rigorous, and we are using best practice by applying our legislation here in the ACT in the best possible way to ensure we remove that risk, regardless of how small the risk is,” Ms Berry said.
“I actually had a call this morning from the Minister for Education in Tasmania, noting that they’re starting to go through some school closures down there … and we’ve had the Queensland education directorate get in touch with us as well.
“We’re doing what we’re required to do under our Act, and I’m really proud that we have such rigorous legislation here in the ACT.”
Ms Berry said government staff – joined by SES volunteers and certified asbestos removalists – were working “all hours, day and night” to finish the clean up and reopen all schools.
“We were receiving certifications up until very late in the evening last night – I think our last certification was at 1 am in the morning – so we’re working around the clock to try and get all of these schools back online and safe for our students and teachers to re-attend,” she said.
She acknowledged it hadn’t been an entirely smooth process, with some issues yesterday with the text alert system that tells parents whether their child’s school has reopened or is still closed – but “we’ve learnt a lot”.
“We’ll keep the community up to date as we work through this process, but that unfortunately will still be several more days for some schools.”
Ms Wood added it’s unknown exactly how long it will take for all schools to reopen.
“We’re working through this as fast as we can.”
As for when play sand might return to ACT schools, it’s not for the foreseeable future.
“Certainly not in the short-term,” Ms Berry said.
“I think there will be some fairly rigorous testing of whether or not that’s appropriate, and parents will have questions too, and that’s understandable.
“I think after we’ve been through all of this process, we can then turn our minds to what happened that these products weren’t tested, and what we can do better in the future to make sure these kinds of products, that are being used – particularly by some vulnerable people in our communities – are being tested appropriately.”
Ms Berry said seven schools will reopen tomorrow:
- Chapman Primary School – reopen from partial closure
- Evelyn Scott School – reopen from full closure
- Aranda Primary School – reopen from full closure
- Malkara School – reopen from full closure
- The Woden School – reopen from full closure
- Cranleigh School – reopen from full closure
- Black Mountain School – reopen from full closure.
Other schools have been partially reopened for some cohorts. For the full list of school closures, visit ACT Education.
