Hundreds of people who have worked in drycleaners in the 1960s and 70s could have been exposed to asbestos fibres. A Perth law firm has warned that drycleaning workers were exposed during long hours of steam pressing near pipes and boilers that were routinely lagged with asbestos.
“It was a common sight in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Michael Magazanik of Slater & Gordon.
“In the back (of the drycleaner) there would be rows of women – it was always women – pressing towels and bed sheets with huge steam pressers, and up and down the walls there were pipes and they were almost always lagged with asbestos… There was quite a lot of exposure.”
Mr Magazanik is acting for a 60-year-old woman who worked for three suburban Perth drycleaners in the 1960s and 1970s and has since been diagnosed with a serious asbestos-related cancer.
Despite the 1987 ban on asbestos use, the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia (ADSA) believes some drycleaners still have deteriorating asbestos insulation.
“Many of these drycleaners were and still are small family businesses,” said ADSA president Robert Vojakovic.
“They don’t make a lot of money and it’s most unlikely anyone can put a lot of pressure on them to remove the asbestos or to make it safe.”
He said the latest case was another tragic example of the insidious nature of asbestos in the everyday environment.
“We lost a man, aged 35, in the late 1990s who worked in a drycleaners,” Mr Vojakovic said. “All he did was have an after-school job sorting coat hangers at the back of the shop and while has was there, they fixed the boiler. He got mesothelioma.”
Mr Magazarik said it was important for people to come forward with information about hazardous drycleaning practices.
“The long latency period between exposure (to asbestos) and disease means people move on, memories fade and documents get lost,” he said. “So capturing the information is important.”
Newspaper advertisements have been published seeking information about three Perth drycleaning businesses. Anyone who has worked in Perth drycleaning businesses and would like more information should contact the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia. .
By Catherine Madden.