Twelve more ACT public schools will fully reopen tomorrow as work to clean up potentially asbestos-tainted sand continues. Thirteen schools will open partially and three will stay shut with 'Malkara School' in Garran likely to remain so for the rest of the week. Meanwhile parents who've used the sand at home are facing their own clean-up challenges.
00:00For Diwali Festival each year, Angela Reading's family makes traditional floor art with coloured sand in their backyard.
00:09Last week she found out some of the sand had been recalled.
00:13I'm the kind of person who panics in the first minute of it, so I was pretty upset.
00:18I rang WorkSafe ACT because I thought that's probably the people who would give sensible advice of what to do.
00:26Leftover sand from the artwork had been swept between the pavers surrounding the home.
00:31She says WorkSafe's advice to cordon off the area and contacting an asbestos removal firm isn't practical.
00:37For a start you can't really contact the asbestos companies at the moment.
00:40I've tried but they're quite busy with the schools.
00:43And secondly, who has thousands and thousands of dollars to implement that recommendation?
00:49Angela's done what she can to clean up or cover affected areas.
00:53But she thinks the cost of testing samples for herself and other Canberrans should be covered by the government.
00:59Let's say on average, even if every household in ACT sent one sample, that's probably less than $50 per household for the government.
01:08I think that would be a reasonable amount of money they could spend on this project.
01:12And also they could gather valuable data on how much of a problem actually is there.
01:16WorkSafe ACT says decisions about how best to make people's homes safe should be informed by experts,
01:22as the work required may be beyond the ability of residents to do themselves.
01:26And it argues it's attempting to make its advice as consistent as possible.
01:30Meanwhile, the ACT government says it's yet to turn its attention to the cost of remediating people's homes.
01:36I think they're legitimate questions to ask and who should stump up that cost.
01:44But at the moment we're just getting through the issue and then we'll be able to have a look at some of the other things that have arisen as a result of it.
01:52With more schools reopening tomorrow, the government is hoping all students will soon be back in class and it can focus on broader concerns.
02:00Clearly there is something wrong with the way this product got into the country
02:05and I agree there should be some kind of enquiry into that process.
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