Sydney’s asbestos crisis has been laid bare in almost 400 pages of secret government documents and never-before-seen photos of tiny fragments found by members of the public.
One of the first pieces of asbestos was found near a bus stop next to Callan St at Rozelle, 7NEWS can now reveal.
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The person who picked it up emailed authorities, sparking a frenzied subsequent search.
Within days, a list of sites potentially exposed to asbestos in mulch ballooned out to include parks, schools, hospitals and residential areas.
An investigation has uncovered hundreds of government risk reports showing more shards of asbestos sitting in mulch garden beds.
Some pictures contained in the nearly 400 pages suggest that asbestos sheets may have gone through a machine.
“It’s quite easy for someone who’s not fully aware of fibro asbestos sheeting products, (to put) them into the machine,” Peter Tighe, chair of the Asbestos Diseases Research Foundation, said.
“It would have come in a bonded state. But once it’s been through the shredder, it could change dramatically.”
Some sites across Sydney remain taped off to the public, months after asbestos was first discovered.
The NSW EPA says, however, that many have since reopened.
“Those circumstances, in terms of how the material ended up in the mulch, is very much a focus for our ongoing investigation,” NSW EPA director of operations Adam Gilligan said.
“A significant proportion of those 79 sites that we’ve identified have been cleaned up.”
Concerns were also raised in the government documents about the substantial cost to the taxpayer.
In an email from the director of public works, one person quoted $100 million.
At Rozelle Parklands, taxpayers have already forked out almost $270,000 for a four-month contract to a testing company.
