Asbestos isnt harmful enough in the scenario to warrant that. The problems arise when its indoors and with continued daily exposure. And for it to get airborne you gotta really move it around a lot, stepping on it in this scenario would have no real effect to your health i believe.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Depends on how high the concentrations are, how much wind there is, how dry the mulch in the beds is. For instance, if the concentrations are very high, the mulch is very dry, and the air is dead still, disturbing the mulch could easily cause a potentially damaging amount of asbestos to stay suspended in the area for quite some time. The bits of asbestos that actually cause damage are the bits that are too small to see, something like 100th the width of a human hair.

[–] ajsadauskas@aus.social 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

@SturgiesYrFase @unexposedhazard I think the other thing to remember is that kids love to do stuff like run through flowerbeds and throw tanbark at each other and generally cause a mess.

If it were just grown ups walking through the park and generally sticking to the paths, it'd probably be fine (or at least much less of an issue).

But in a number of these parks, the mulch has ended up around play equipment. And that's likely to be much more of an issue.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

1000% the fact that the whole park isn't cordoned off is a bit troubling for this exact reason.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

Asbestos isn't harmful unless you're doing somethig that causes the dust particles from it to become airborne and even then it's not much of an issue outdoors.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

Yeah the lovely green colour is really at odds with the message...

[–] neo@feddit.de 10 points 8 months ago

Makes sense. Parks are an artificial recreation of nature and since everything in Australia wants to kill you with deadly chemicals, you just have to put in some deadlines, too.

[–] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 3 points 8 months ago

Did you walk around to Sydney's latest tourist attraction the Rozelle smoke stacks?

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Dad died of mesothelioma, caused by asbestos. Let me provide some context on the danger.

He was a torpedoman in WWII, below decks. The pipes were lashed in raw asbestos and he said the dust would rain on them every time a shell hit nearby.

Took 40-years for that to catch up with him. I don't think walking on contaminated mulch is gonna fuck anyone up.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

No mulch snorting for you!

On the bright side, beer is allowed again!