Understanding and Ending the Lethal Asbestos Legacy
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
A consolidated asbestos register called AIRSystem and a custom risk assessment model have been described in this manuscript in order to plan and prioritize the removal of asbestos from buildings. The title and content of the manuscript are attractive and have a good level of novelty, but there also exist some weaknesses like the followings in the manuscript that need to be edited:
- In the scientific articles and most of the reports, the data are usually the base and all the descriptions and interpretations are formed around the data to introduce the tables and figures, but in this manuscript, the reader seems that the data are not the core and the figures are stand alone and even in some cases are not referenced in the context (figure 1). Therefore, major revision is recommended for the article design and express of the results.
- Some parts of the manuscript are too long and they are preferred to be rewritten in a more concise way. As a result, the whole manuscript will be more concise and attractive.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Understanding and Ending the Lethal Asbestos Legacy 2
Simone Stevenson 1*, Oonagh Barron 1, Andrew Pakenham 1 and Masayoshi Hashinaka 1
Reviewer observations
Line 20 The number of deaths in Australia must be broken down by type of related asbestos disease and broken down by exposure assessment (occupational, environmental, family)
Line 22 Add industrial buildings
Line 23 The authors must specify that ACM is also used internally and, in this case, not subject to deterioration due to atmospheric agents
Line 24 It is difficult to understand why unplanned removal should be less secure than planned removal, unless the authors for “unplanned removal” would intend “illegal removals”
Line 26 The authors must explain with which materials those in ACM are replaced to improve the sustainability of the buildings
Line 29 It must be specified which use it is in particular if it refers to the use of raw materials to be transformed into manufactured articles
Line 39. Do the authors mean direct use (use of raw material for its transformation or indirect use, use of ACM in building construction or industrial plants?
Line 42. The Wittenoon Mine is well known for its production of crocidolite which closed in 1966, which other mines were opened up to 1984 and what was the mineralogical variety extracted?
Line 44 The quantity is to be divided by mineralogical variety and mine of origin even if foreign
Line 51 The adjective malignant must be added to the word mesothelioma
Line 60 It is necessary to make a distinction between danger and risk. The risk can be measured and the authors must report the results of environmental monitoring to determine the risk in relation to the general population.
Line 66 Although we agree on the damage that can occur, it is still good practice to evaluate the risk not only for the presence but for the release of fibers which can be identified by means of environmental monitoring and appropriate instruments.
Line 96 The authors must frame the period of exposure of the asbestos related pathologies that arise today, given that they have very long latencies and today certainly longer than in the past.
Line 194 Replace the material names that have been repeated in 3 lines
Line 210 The authors must specify the characteristics of the monitoring (analytical methods, type of microscopy, volumes of air sampled) and if there is any other limit at which attendance of the premises must be prohibited.
Line 254 Ten levels of friability are too many and can create difficulties for those who have to describe the material during the inspection
Line 302 The authors must explain why among the risks considered which substantially concern the dispersion of the fibers in the air, they do not take into account the risk of accidents due to walking on asbestos cement roofing which is highly fragile and which, if not resting on a solid roof they can knock a person to the ground when they break through.
Line 476. The meaning of ceilings is well known but Figure 5 does not show the corrugated roofing slabs that are mentioned in line 575
Line 488. Has an estimate been made of how much ACM in tonnes is still in place? Has an estimate been made of how long the ACM decommissioning process will last in terms of years?
Line 618 The authors must give a dimension to the words “significant contamination” and possibly report monitoring data of airborne fibers following disturbing events such as storms or fires. The same must be reported on line 625.
Row 641 Specify in detail the characteristics of landfills that can be considered safe
In general:
The article is well written and details the asbestos disposal program in the state of Victoria. However, it does not fully explain to the reader how the state of Victoria will secure all asbestos removed from both state-owned and privately-owned buildings. Landfills, if this is the choice for the final destination, it is true that they represent the last ring of the chain but if they are not planned carefully they represent a plug at the end of the pipe, preventing or increasing the costs of reclamation.
The frequent phrases about the risk caused only by the presence (which not necessarily means exposure) of these materials have no bibliographic reference of scientific literature to support these statements. The bibliography must necessarily be expanded with articles pertinent to the topic under discussion.
No mention is made of pipelines for transporting water. If these are also present and still used in the state of Victoria, the authors must specify whether and if, there are technical guidelines for maintenance interventions and whether there is a specific program for their decommissioning.
No reference has been found to the mineralogical varieties of asbestos contained in the artifacts. Since Australia was a producer country, in particular of crocidolite until 1966, this parameter should also be included in the potential risk assessment indices since blue asbestos is the most powerful carcinogen among the other mineralogical varieties of asbestos
There is also no estimate of the length of time period it will take the clean up of the whole country.
The article is too long and many concepts and descriptions are replied too many times.
The article is certainly of interest and will worth to be published but with important revisions by the authors.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
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Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The suggested changes are made by the authors.
Author Response
Thank you for the review and confirming suggested changes have been made.
Reviewer 2 Report
What you write about the comment on line 302 "Accidents due to walking on fragile asbestos rooves represent a substantial risk however, are not considered an asbestos risk, rather a general OH&S risk (working at heights particularly) and is as such not considered relevant to this article as it is concerned primarily with asbestos related risks "
This is only partly true because even the asbestos free corrugated sheets are fragile and cause the same accidents but, because we are in a period of time where the asbestos cement roof sheets are replaced, emphasizing this risk should suggest the building owners to use sandwich insulated metal sheets which don't brake when a person walks on them. In the country I am living this substitution would save the life of an average of 50 people/year. It is not secondary so the asbestos cleaning process should take into account this opportunity replacing the roofs with safer materials. You should mention this problem in your article, it takes just two or three lines.....
Thanks
Author Response
Thank you for the feedback, please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
