More potential victims have come forward in the wake of an investigation that has linked the site of the former Wunderlich factory in Sunshine North to more than 20 asbestos exposure cases.
Slater and Gordon senior asbestos lawyer Margaret Kent said the firm had received dozens of calls from present and former Sunshine North residents following reports that 16 people who lived within a kilometre of the former Wunderlich factory on McIntyre Road had died from asbestos-related diseases, including asbestosis and mesothelioma. A further eight people had become seriously ill.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has since confirmed the presence of asbestos in samples from illegally dumped waste along the Gilmour Road rail reserve, which is behind the former Wunderlich site.
More than 200 concerned residents attended the Sunshine RSL on Sunday to get more information and advice from the EPA, a hygienist, the Health Department and a respiratory doctor. Many were concerned that persistent coughs and asbestos in their roof cavities could lead to asbestos-related illnesses in future.
Some residents are forking out $300 to find out for themselves if their properties contain asbestos.
Former North Sunshine resident Paul Clements, who lived on Cary Street for 15 years in the ’60s and ’70s, remembers riding past the factory every day while working as a paper boy.
“There has to be compensation, people have to be held accountable for what’s happened,” he said. “They don’t even know how many people have died from it because people have moved away from the area – they’ve died from things they think are unrelated to it.”
Mr Clements, who now lives in Townsville, has spent the past week getting his family and himself tested for asbestos-related illnesses.
Doctors have found a spot on one of his lungs. He is now undergoing further
testing.
State Health Minister David Davis has appointed an “expert advisory group” to provide the government with scientific and technical advice about the site.
