The Asbestos Taskforce is taking a broadly hands-off approach to the contents of Mr Fluffy asbestos homes, leaving home owners to decide what contents to take with them when their homes are demolished.
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Taskforce head Andrew Kefford said there was no way to certify that possessions were safe, but it was likely that most possessions could be safely taken from houses, so long as they were not from areas where fibres had been found.
Anything stored in a subfloor, roof space or contaminated cupboard should be disposed of or left behind for the taskforce to deal with in the demolition, the advice to homeowners released on Thursday said. For anything of great financial or sentimental value stored in those spaces people should seek advice from a licensed removalist.
Soft furnishings, bedding, linen, soft toys and clothing could not be effectively decontaminated, so if such items had been stored in a contaminated area, they, too, should be abandoned.
For the 40 homes where families have been forced to move out because of extensive contamination, no contents should be recovered unless they had been decontaminated by a licensed asbestos removalist, the taskforce said.
But it would be "unnecessary, distressing, costly and wasteful" to destroy all contents in all of the 1021 homes.
Items in living areas that had hard cleanable surfaces, such as crockery, hard furniture and electrical items could be wiped clean with a wet cloth and kept. Garden and outdoor furniture and contents in outside shed were very unlikely to be contaminated.
The Government will not pay any of the cost of decontaminating possessions.
Mr Kefford said while there was no definitive way to say contents were safe, the health risk was considered low for owners and the wider community. Even when asbestos fibres were in furniture, the risk that they would become breathable was low, he said.
When asked why the taskforce was not providing more definitive advice, he said, "We cant sit where we sit and specify something that applies to all of the contents of 1021 houses."
Eight hundred homes had had asbestos assessments done and owners should use those assessment in deciding what to take, he said.
"The difficulty in giving a definitive position is that you can't tell. If we could test everything and say yes or no, easy. We can't. So were in the space of making decisions. The other point is there is no way we can objectively say something is not contaminated. So we are in a space of engaging with risk. So the best we can do is provide some general guidance and then say pick up your assessment and you've got to make a decision."