Christchurch City Council checking its buildings for asbestos
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Christchurch City Council is ramping up the routine assessments of its buildings to determine how many may include asbestos containing materials.
The Council owns more than 2000 buildings across Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. Those buildings include toilet blocks, storage sheds, community centres, libraries, sport and recreation centres and social housing units.
Asbestos management plans will be developed for any Christchurch City Council building found to have asbestos containing materials.
It plans to check nearly all of them over the next five years to determine how many may have asbestos containing material in them.
Council Head of Facilities, Planning and Property Bruce Rendall says if asbestos is present in a building, it is unlikely to pose any health risk as it will probably by undisturbed and sealed within the building.
“Asbestos is only a health risk if it is in poor condition or if it's been disturbed so in most cases we expect there will be no need to stop using the building, but we need to know it is there so that we can begin to manage it and plan how we safely remove it.
“Asbestos contaminated material doesn’t necessarily have to be removed immediately. In most cases the asbestos removal can happen when the building is next being renovated or repaired.’’
Mr Rendall says the buildings being checked are mostly older ones built before New Zealand started regulating the use of asbestos in 1978, and ones that have not been recently checked through other programmes.
“Contractors, who are specialists in hazardous substances, will check each building and test it for asbestos. If they find asbestos they will make recommendations on how and when it should be removed.
“We will be keeping tenants of our buildings informed about the testing process and the results as they come through,’’ Mr Rendall says.
“In the unlikely event that we do need to stop using a building because of the presence of asbestos, we will work with the tenants to find them suitable temporary facilities.’’