Latest news with #asbestos
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Tender issued to remove banned building material from Montague hospital
Social Sharing Plans are in the works to start removing asbestos from Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague, P.E.I. The provincial health authority says a recent assessment found several areas of the facility had been built with asbestos-containing materials that need to be taken out before planned renovations can proceed. The province issued a tender for the work this week, and once it begins, officials estimate it will take about a month and a half to complete. Tara Roche, Health P.E.I.'s administrator of community hospitals east, said the work is unlikely to affect services offered at KCMH. "I don't anticipate it will impact patients much at all," said Roche. "Part of our priority was to ensure that." Once a popular and fire-resistant insulation material, asbestos is commonly found in old roofing, tiles and similar products. It's also carcinogenic. When asbestos is disturbed, it releases fine particles into the air, which have been associated with a variety of cancers when they are inhaled. The hospital in Montague was built in 1971, before the use of asbestos was banned in many parts of the world. Canada prohibited its use in 1990. More work to come This is only Phase 1 of a broader plan to remove the material from the hospital. This time around, the province is budgeting $400,000 for work in the laundry, physiotherapy, storage and central sterile reprocessing (CSR) areas. Those areas were prioritized because the CSR needed some upgrades and an assessment scored the other locations as being "high risk," Roche said. "It tells us there is some asbestos around pipe, and there is some asbestos in some of our compound within our drywall — and some areas are more risky than others." Roche said physiotherapy services will move elsewhere in the hospital, while some laundry and sterilization services will be shared by other Health P.E.I. facilities in the area. The areas of the hospital where the work will be happening are mostly used by staff, she said, but the public will notice some barricades and other measures to seal off the removal zones. Roche said she is hoping work can begin in July or August.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Auckland War Memorial Museum to partially reopen after asbestos discovery forced closure
The museum has been closed since 10 May. Photo: 123RF The Auckland War Memorial Museum will partially reopen next week after an extended closure caused by the discovery of asbestos. The museum has been closed since 10 May when asbestos was found in the ceiling of the original 1929 building. After having a revised fire evacuation procedure approved by Fire and Emergency last week, the museum has now been cleared by Worksafe and Auckland Council to reopen on Tuesday. That would make the incoming King's Birthday weekend the fourth weekend in a row missed during the closure. "I had hoped we would get through for the long weekend but it just wasn't possible," chief executive David Reeves said. "People have been working day and night on this and we just decided it was better to be sure that we can start on Tuesday rather than have a false start over the weekend." Reeves estimated the first stage of the reopening would cover about two thirds of the complex. "It's pretty much the whole of the southern end of the building. So the curved end, for people who know the building," he said. "That's our main foyer, the retail shop, the cafe, the Auckland galleries, the education centre, the Weird and Wonderful [exhibit], and most of the war galleries on the top floor." Work to clean the rest of the museum would take a lot longer, Reeves said. "The 1929 part of the building is just architecturally a much more complex building and it's much more complex for us to devise the appropriate cleaning regime, so it will take a little bit longer because we want to do a good job and not have a stop, start of opening and then needing to close again," he said. "The area around the grand foyer, the original 1929 foyer, and all of the galleries that are immediately adjacent to that space... [That] area we know will be a very much longer job, but the rest we're hoping within a month or two, but it really depends what we discover." He said the 24-day closure had dealt a substantial blow to the museum, but it could've been worse. "We are lucky, if any of this is good luck, that we are between our two overseas international touring shows... So it was going to be a quiet period anyway." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Health PEI issues tender for asbestos removal at hospital
Health PEI said it will issue a public tender on Thursday in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to remove asbestos from Kings County Memorial Hospital (KCMH) in Montague. A recent assessment found several areas in the hospital contain asbestos requiring removal, said a news release from the province. The asbestos is contained and poses no risk to patients or staff unless disturbed, said the release. The province said it will spend a maximum of $400,000 on the removal through the Capital Repair and Maintenance budget. The tender is phase one of a plan to remove asbestos from the facility 'in a safe and controlled manner,' said the release. A Health PEI representative said laundry, physiotherapy, central sterile reprocessing and storage areas are being prioritized for cleanup because of operational needs and safety concerns. The province said additional areas will be addressed, pending funding and further planning, during phase two. Health PEI said the work will be done by professionals following strict safety protocols and is expected to take 10 weeks. KCMH was built in 1971, before the ban on asbestos in building construction. For more P.E.I. news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
ABC News
6 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Dusted - the human cost of mining in Australia
Asbestos, the killer material that we now know causes lung disease and mesothelioma, was once the 'wonder mineral'. Before it was banned in Australia in 2003, many thousands of people died, because building manufacturing companies kept making and selling asbestos products despite knowing its dust was dangerous. Each generation's stories about asbestos dust tell us something new. Host Van Badham brings us the final episode in this series. Guests: Matt Peacock – journalist & author of Killer Company Matt Peacock – journalist & author of Killer Company Meredith Edelman – lecturer, business law & taxation, Monash University Meredith Edelman – lecturer, business law & taxation, Monash University Pavla Miller – academic & co-author of Mining Gold and Manufacturing Ignorance Pavla Miller – academic & co-author of Mining Gold and Manufacturing Ignorance Dr. Pamela Kinnear – academic & public policy consultant Dr. Pamela Kinnear – academic & public policy consultant Maitland Parker – Banjima elder Maitland Parker – Banjima elder Bernie Banton – asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton – asbestos campaigner Sound engineer – John Jacobs Sound engineer – John Jacobs Producer – Lyn Gallacher Link: searchable database of once-secret industry documents relating to public health.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Auckland War Memorial Museum likely to stay closed for at least one more week, losing around $19,000 a day
Auckland War Memorial Museum was forced to close after asbestos was discovered. Photo: 123RF Auckland War Memorial Museum says it is likely to stay closed for at least another week. It has been almost two weeks since asbestos was discovered at the museum, forcing it closed. A spokesperson for Fire and Emergency said it received the museum's revised fire evacuation scheme on Wednesday and had approved it on Thursday morning. But the museum's chief executive, David Reeves, said that was just one of the two issues that needed resolving before it could reopen. "The other one is the full cleaning and approval by WorkSafe for as much of the building as we can in order to open safely," he said. "That will likely be another week, it may even be longer. It just depends on what our licensed asbestos removalist firm advises, but we're working as quickly as we can." That would make at least three weeks without visitors or donations. "It's around $19,000 a day [in lost revenue], and that's made up of a whole range of things we're not able to earn by way of ticket sales, carparks, retail, venue hire, and incidental donations from members of the public," Reeves explained. "It would be [worrying] if it was for much longer, but we have a really strong balance sheet and we are able to sustain this - $19,000 a day isn't insignificant, but for a short period we are able to readjust other expenditure." But he assured that staff were continuing to work and being paid in full. "We've got an off-site office in Newmarket and also lots of people are able to work from home. There is absolutely plenty of work for people to do and we're all fully employed," he said. "We do have some casual staff and we have paid them for the shifts they were already rostered onto, but obviously forward rosters are affected for them, but we are hoping to get back up and running really as quickly as possible." Members of the public who had paid for an annual membership would also be compensated, Reeves said. "We've automatically extended everybody's membership renewal date by one month, and if we end up being closed for longer than that we'll look at that again." More to come... Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
