New asbestos removal audit

It is the fourth home found to contain asbestos insulation since the federal government spent nearly $100 million cleaning 1000 homes in the ACT in the infamous ''Mr Fluffy'' loose asbestos insulation saga.

Installed in the 1960s and '70s, Mr Fluffy's amosite asbestos fibres are now known to be one of the most dangerous forms of asbestos.

The Downer home, in Bradfield Street, will be encased in a giant pressurised plastic bubble to contain any chance of contamination as workers begin pulling the home down and disposing of it over the next three months.

ACT Work Safety Commission Mark McCabe has been advising the government on the removal process, which will be monitored by an asbestos assessor and WorkSafe ACT.

The home has been vacant since November 2011 when its owners discovered a substance they thought to be asbestos. They called in a licensed assessor who confirmed it was. The house was then sealed off and fenced. Air monitoring since the discovery has found no asbestos fibres within or outside the home.

The homeowners left immediately after the asbestos was confirmed and negotiated to sell the house and land to the ACT government at market value, according to a spokeswoman for Attorney-General Simon Corbell.

The ACT government sent notices to local residents on Monday to tell them the house would be removed.

Mr McCabe suggested the 18-month time frame between the discovery of asbestos and its removal was due to negotiations with the owners and the need to formulate a strategy for remediation.

''It's a quite lengthy and complicated process as obviously we can't just bulldoze it,'' he said.

Mr Corbell's spokeswoman said, ''While it is unfortunate that homes were missed, it is important to note that neither the ACT nor Commonwealth Government gave any assurances that all homes containing Mr Fluffy would be identified during the program.''

Another in a series of internal reviews of the removal program has begun. Mr Corbell's spokeswoman said that in the 2010 ACT government review of its asbestos management strategy, a series of recommendations had been made, including to review the information available to owners of homes that were in the removal program.

However, the Downer house had not been identified as a result of a review. The home is the fourth found to have missed the official screening process which began in the late '80s to identify all houses containing Mr Fluffy insulation.

These include a house in Mawson, identified in 2009, a house in Lyons identified in 2007 and a house in Yarralumla identified in 1996.

Mr McCabe said screening processes at the time lacked the stringency and sense of urgency of current asbestos handling.

''Typically, screening back then consisted of a visual inspection when an inspector lifted roof tiles. In this case, and in the case of the three other houses coming to light over the past 20 years, it was missed.''

Since 2004, all residential sales in the territory must include a lease conveyance report advising buyers whether the house contains loose-fill asbestos.

The Downer home had been found to have the roof insulation still in place, as well as asbestos fibres at the base of the wall cavities which had migrated from the roof.

Mr McCabe warned that houses which had been part of the removal program may still have residual asbestos fibres in places such as wall cavities and caution needed to be exercised for even minor repairs or renovations in these homes.

Loose asbestos residuals have also been discovered in the subfloors of five ACT homes in the past four months.

Affected homeowners have called for a public awareness campaign about the chances of fibres still being present in homes which were part of the clean-up program.

Homeowners with questions about whether their home was part of the program can contact ACT Planning and Land Authority.