00:00 A dangerous discovery closes Liverpool West Public School.
00:06 We acted as soon as we were aware of this.
00:11 It is or was found in a garden bed in the playground.
00:16 Some concerned parents only learnt the news at morning drop off.
00:19 No, I wasn't aware.
00:22 A single piece of bonded asbestos was found among the mulch which was laid late last year.
00:27 All of it is now being removed.
00:29 The advice I had as Secretary for New South Wales Health was that it carries very low
00:34 risk to the school community.
00:37 But one piece is one piece too many.
00:40 It's been over a month since asbestos was first detected in 10 tonnes of mulch spread
00:44 across the Roselle Interchange Parklands.
00:47 Asbestos has since been discovered in mulch at more than a dozen sites around Sydney,
00:52 including railway substations at Dulwich Hill, Canterbury and Campsie, and alongside the
00:56 Prospect Highway.
00:57 Today, Campbelltown Hospital was also added to the list.
01:01 The EPA says there's a common denominator.
01:04 Well look, it's fair to say the entire supply chain is under intense scrutiny.
01:09 We're working still through multiple lines of inquiry, but the supplier in question is
01:15 a common link across all the sites where we've so far had positive detections.
01:19 But the supplier insists independent tests of its mulch have come back clear.
01:24 Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility is confident that when its products are delivered to contractors
01:28 to lay, they are free of asbestos.
01:31 The company has no visibility of, and does not control, how its products are used on
01:35 sites once delivered.
01:37 The department does not believe the company has supplied other schools, but it can't guarantee
01:41 they're contamination free.
01:43 If there is a school that is impacted, be assured that education, your school, will
01:48 act immediately, straight away, to remedy the situation and keep your children safe.
01:55 The EPA will have to finish its investigation before any charges can be laid.
01:59 For more information, visit www.fema.gov
02:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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