Bexley hit by fly-tipping of deadly asbestos

29 April 2003

A HUGE amount of deadly asbestos was fly-tipped recently in Bexley.

The load was dumped in Leafield Road, a small slip road off North Cray Road. Bexley Council was alerted to the incident on a Sunday and shut off
the lane, putting up warning signs.

The next day, part of the main road was closed as fire fighters from three areas, wearing protective equipment, including breathing apparatus, spent nearly three hours making the area safe, including by damping down the dust to prevent it from spreading.

Specialist contractors then carefully removed the load to a licensed landfill site. As they removed each layer of asbestos, they damped down each
layer.

The council contacted the holders of nearby allotments and alerted them to the possibility of contamination. Specialist teams were sent to investigate.

Bexley Council suspects that the asbestos waste came from the demolishedroof of a factory roof.

The incident was captured on CCTV but the video is not good enough to identify the guilty party.

Large amounts of asbestos have been fly-tipped in the greater London area recently.

In Ilford, there were two recent incidents of asbestos being fly-tipped.

Several bags of asbestos waste were dumped in the first incident. In the other, a large quantity was dumped in a private service road near Ley Street carpark. Children began to play in the area before the council was alerted.

Again, the council called in specialist contractors to damp down the scene and removed the asbestos to a licensed site.

In Merton in March, a big load of waste that reportedly contained asbestoswas dumped at Prince George's Road. Residents were very concerned until they were told that the waste did not include asbestos.

Asbestos can cause cancer and is very expensive to clean up.

Mick Holder of the London Hazards Centre said: Asbestos removal and disposal is a highly dangerous operation and should be done properly, controlling any possibility of the spread of dust and including safe disposal to a licensed tip. These firms are clearly willing to risk lives and must be caught
urgently."

Asbestos cannot be identified visually and has to be verified by using a microscope. It was generally used in products mixed with cement or plaster, and thus it takes specialist analysis to measure the actual risk.

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