Canberrans may never uncover the full amount of dangerous asbestos dumped in the ACT.
Hype and hysteria surround some discoveries because of the varying degrees of risks, according to authorities.
Asbestos assessor Frank Poole said much asbestos was left in old housing for workers building the national capital and later knocked down and buried. During World War II fibro structures such as temporary prisoners-of-war and military camps were quickly constructed with asbestos sheeting.
''After the war, none of that was needed and rather than retain it, it was just knocked down,'' Mr Poole said.
Little awareness of the dangers of asbestos meant it was discarded as builders' rubble, which was harmless when buried and left undisturbed.
Mr Poole said no records existed of where builders dug holes and dumped their material.
People could pick up an asbestos disease without knowing it, from a worn friable asbestos board in an old airconditioning unit, or from dust coming from a neighbouring block of units being renovated.
Asbestos has been dug up most recently at Lyneham sports precinct, along Constitution Avenue on the site of the new ASIO headquarters, and units at Kingston Foreshore and in the new Molonglo suburbs.
Houses built before 1985 in all suburbs except Gungahlin and some outer Tuggeranong suburbs and Isaacs and Dunlop, have a very high chance of containing asbestos.
Awareness of the potential lethal risk has caused a surge of reporting to WorkSafe ACT.
Fifty to 200 times thinner than a human hair, asbestos fibres can float in the air for a long time, with the potential if inhaled to cause lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.
WorkSafe ACT commissioner Mark McCabe said creating a map of dumped asbestos ran the risk of misleading people.
''Unfortunately there was a lot of stuff dumped in the '40s and '50s or whenever, that no one was told about, so there's a danger.
''It's a balance between telling people where they are likely to find it, but not to mislead them to think 'if you dig here you will be fined'. ''
He said at Lyneham records going back several decades had been checked which did not indicate material which could contain asbestos, nor did test drilling, so what was found there had been buried a long time ago.
''Who is to say that hasn't happened across Canberra?''
On big development projects and refurbishments it was more probable that agencies such as WorkSafe would be alerted.
''The ones where we have problems is small residential sites, or sites where they're digging stuff up where no one knew it was there.''
Mr Poole said do-it-yourself renovators, including builders, ran a great risk and should get homes assessed by a licensed person.
.gif)
