Our house is killing us: hidden risk for Aussie homeowners

While many her age are enjoying a hard earned break after a lifetime of work, the 73 year old is mourning the recent loss of her husband and getting fluid drained from her lungs.

She can’t drive or do the gardening anymore because she is in too much pain.

And as she notices the grout crumbling in her bathroom or the old electrical sockets wearing away, she knows she can’t do anything but watch as her asbestos house ages and she counts down her final days.

She is one of a growing number of Australians being diagnosed with a life-threatening asbestos related disease after exposure in the home, with an estimated one in three houses built before 1990 still likely to contain the banned fibre.

Like many in her generation, she and her husband didn’t shy away from hard work. They dug the 96 pier holes that would support their home by hand and cut every sheet of fibro asbestos panelling to the right size.

Ms Davoren said the popular brand of construction product didn’t come with any health warnings at the time, and it was considered the most affordable yet durable option for Aussies building their homes on a budget.

But after living in the home for 50 years, Ms Davoren’s husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a cancer known to be caused by asbestos exposure.

One year later he died.

A few months ago Ms Davoren found out she too had the incurable cancer – a disease where only 6.3 per cent of those diagnosed live longer than five years.

But it’s not just the diagnosis or the lack of health warning that has angered Ms Davoren – it’s what it means for her house, the asset she worked so hard to build.

“Because the whole house is built from asbestos I can’t have anything done,” she said.

“There’s a powerpoint gone but I can’t get anyone in to fix it because that would disturb it (the asbestos).”

“In the bathroom, I can’t get it regrouted.”

“That means my supposed asset is up the creek. Who wants to buy an asbestos house?”

Sandie Foreman knows what it is like to live with mesothelioma. At just 58 she was told she probably had six to 18 months left to live.

At the time of diagnosis, she hadn’t experienced any chest pain or shortness of breath – in fact, the cancer was only picked up because she had an X-Ray for something unrelated.

Because it was early days, she was one of 8 people in the 700 diagnosed that year considered eligible for treatment.

This consisted of five rounds of chemotherapy, intensive surgery where her entire left lung, the lining of her heart and part of her diaphragm were removed, followed by one month of radiation therapy.

She was so ill from the treatment her weight dropped to 45kg.

Five years on, she hasn’t had a recurrence yet knows she hasn’t been cured.

“It’s always there,” she said.

Her exposure was traced back to a place she worked at in the 1980s as a hairdresser and makeup artist where routine maintenance is thought to have released asbestos dust into the air.

She was not the only worker to have developed an asbestos disease from the building.

Since her diagnosis she has met countless people who were exposed in their homes and workplaces.

“I know people who have not survived it and were exposed because they helped their dad do some home repairs when they were teenagers,” she said.

“Or younger people that said, ‘we used to break up the fibro sheeting from the shed that got torn down and use it like chalk to play hopscotch’.”

As a mortgage broker, she cautions clients thinking of renovating older houses.

She said it’s worth the extra expense to have any asbestos removed.

“The advice has always been if you don’t disturb it, it is fine,” she said.

“But the thing is – it’s fine for now. There’s no such thing as something that won’t break down eventually.”

“Do you really want that stuff in your house with your kids?”