Testing of an initial 200 samples had a 10 per cent positive rate,Sharpe said,saying the taskforce,to be led by NSW Asbestos Co-ordination Committee chair Carolyn Walsh,was designed to use COVID-era contact tracing to discover where in the supply chain the mulch had been mixed with asbestos.
“One supplier supplied to about 30 distributors,who have now distributed further down the chain,and we think it could be over 100,” Sharpe said on Thursday.
“We do understand that it is a big problem. But this is partly why the additional resources are being put in,and it’s also why we need to get to the bottom of the supply chain as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that there is a failure here. Asbestos should not be in this product.”
EPA chief executive Tony Chappel said the agency was urgently testing potentially contaminated mulch discovered in private residences. The mulch had not been purchased off-the-shelf,he said,but rather been acquired through “multiple layers of distribution and then on selling”.
While the majority of sites had been identified within Greater Sydney,Chappel said a “small number” had been uncovered elsewhere in NSW,including the Nowra Bridge project,on the state’s South Coast.
Multiple suppliers have been investigated,he said,but declined to divulge further details.