No mesothelioma asbestos found in Canadian Power Station

The Victoria EPA has disproved employee claims that asbestos can be found in the smokestacks of Australia’s Hazelwood Power Station. An asbestos investigation of Australia’s Hazelwood Power Station, located in Latrobe Valley, Victoria, has come to a close after about a month.

ABC News reports that, despite claims made by a former employee, asbestos material is absent from the power station’s smokestacks. The Authority and Workcover both inspected the power station’s records, and discovered that asbestos in the boilers could not, feasibly, make its way to the smoke stacks.

Prior to this discovery, employers were concerned asbestos fibers were in the stacks. Asbestos is a particularly dangerous material, known to pose a serious health risk to those exposed. Many diseases, such as malignant mesothelioma, are related to such exposure. Mesothelioma forms from the protective lining of many of the body’s internal organs, and affects nearly 3,000 Americans each year.

Symptoms of mesothelioma tend to lie dormant for 10 to 50 years, following exposure. Because of this, mesothelioma doctors struggle to diagnose patients in the early stages of their disease.

The EPA’s Gippsland manager has said, however, that asbestos testing of the power station’s emissions has yet to be done. The manager also noted, “A sample could be conducted, but first of all we’re very confident that it’s not there.”

If such sampling were conducted, however, test results would only display a “snapshot” of the power station’s emissions.