General information about Queensland’s rules, not legal, health or safety advice. The official place to check is asbestos.qld.gov.au.
If material that may contain asbestos has been broken or disturbed, the national asbestos agency’s advice is to get professional help to remove it. Queensland’s rules then depend on what happened: a broken edge that is staying put must be sealed, and anything that crumbles is class A work for a licensed removalist.
Queensland publishes its step-by-step cleanup and personal decontamination procedure on its cleanup and disposal page. This guide does not reprint it; if you clean up, follow it there, in full.
Handling Read before you touch anything
- The national asbestos agency says it is “not recommended that you handle or remove asbestos yourself”, and that getting a professional to do the job is easier and safer.
- Queensland’s health page puts the danger plainly: “It is when asbestos is worked with or disturbed and asbestos fibres are released that the risk of developing an asbestos related disease is increased.”
- Queensland’s homeowner questions page says: “Never use power tools (such as power saws, drills, sanders and angle grinders) or high pressure water blasters on asbestos materials.” Queensland’s prohibited activities page adds two more that state law forbids when you are working with or removing asbestos-containing materials: compressed air or abrasive blasting, and a household vacuum cleaner, even one with a HEPA filter (only cleaners specially designed for asbestos work may be used), which the page calls very dangerous because they can release large numbers of asbestos fibres into the air. The national agency also says never to clean asbestos with anything abrasive, such as scrubbing, sanding or grinding. Queensland’s renovating tips also tell you not to “Saw, sand, scrape or drill holes in asbestos materials.”
- In Queensland, asbestos waste must go to a disposal site licensed to receive it: a landfill that can lawfully take asbestos waste, usually run by your local council. It is illegal to put it in a domestic garbage bin. The other option Queensland lists is a plastic-lined industrial skip, which may be provided by a waste contractor holding an environmental authority to transport regulated waste.
Three kinds of accident
- Entry 1 · A broken edge, staying in place
A cracked fence panel or a broken sheet you are not removing
Queensland says damaged boundary fences, including cracks, holes and sections on the ground, may not pose an immediate health risk, but damaged edges should be sealed so fibres do not become airborne. The law goes further: “Under the Public Health Act 2005, any broken surface of bonded ACM (for example, a broken fence) that is not being removed must be sealed.” Queensland says this can be done with paint or PVA glue.
Renting? Queensland’s tenant page says that if asbestos in a rental is damaged, making it safe is usually the landlord’s or agent’s responsibility, and a tenant should ask them to have a damaged fence made safe.
- Entry 2 · Dust or chips from work
Drilled, cut or sanded before anyone checked
Queensland’s guide explains why this one matters: “When asbestos is disturbed, broken, sanded or cut, asbestos fibres are released into the air and can increase the risk of being inhaled by yourself, family or neighbours.”
Two everyday habits make it worse. Queensland’s guide says “Never use dusting, sweeping or brushing methods as they will circulate asbestos fibres into the air.” Its cleanup page says a household vacuum cleaner must not be used, because it “will cause an uncontrolled release of asbestos fibres”.
- Entry 3 · It crumbles
Material that turns to powder under your hand
Queensland’s rule is plain: “if your asbestos product is loosely bound together or it easily crumbles under hand pressure (known as friable asbestos) you must use an A Class licensed removalist to complete any removal work.” Bonded material that has deteriorated until light hand pressure turns it to dust should be treated as friable. Some felt carpet underlay is friable, and is class A work.
At a workplace, a different rule
The rule below is a workplace rule under Queensland’s work health and safety laws. Every step of it is printed word for word for businesses and their workers, and it is not a procedure for a homeowner working at home.
- “Asbestos contaminated dust or debris (ACD) at a workplace must be cleaned up by a Class A asbestos removalist unless:”
- “associated with a Class B asbestos removal job”
- “generated by a removal job of 10 square metres or less of non-friable asbestos”
- “it is a ‘minor contamination’ not associated with asbestos removal.”
- “For more guidance and examples of a ‘minor contamination’ of ACD visit the Safe Work Australia website.”
Reproduced every step, word for word, from Asbestos contaminated dust or debris, on asbestos.qld.gov.au, under its Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
Health, in proportion
Queensland’s health page says the risk to health increases with the number of fibres breathed in and how often, and that asbestos-related diseases usually take many years to develop. It also says: “Occasional exposures to low concentrations of asbestos fibres, for example from house fires or renovation work on a neighbouring property, are likely to be associated with low risk to health.”
Asking a licensed removalist
Queensland’s rules send crumbly material to a class A licensed removalist, and bonded jobs over 10 square metres to a licensed business or a certificate holder. A licensed removalist can look at what was disturbed and tell you which of those applies.