JOHN Tonkin College’s Tindale street campus has been named among 121 Western Australian Schools containing asbestos in a report released last week.
The 2013 Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM) Audit of WA schools showed the potentially hazardous substance had been found in one spot in the school.
The area was ranked as risk rating three, meaning it has been assessed as being “unsealed or coating damaged, severely weathered [with a] medium probability of disturbance”.
The highest number on the risk rating scale is one, which means the area was regarded as having a higher chance of being exposed or disturbed.
Education Minister Peter Collier reassured parents that this not mean the whole school was at risk.
“Environmental health experts advise that undisturbed asbestos poses an extremely low risk to health, and where it is located in areas that are unlikely to be disturbed, there is no urgent need to remove it,” he said.
“That said, the State Government has an ongoing program of asbestos removal in schools where it presents a possible risk, and last financial year we spent about $2million on associated repairs and maintenance.”
