Trailer Trash

by Balthazaar

Many people across Australia live full-time in old caravans. It has come to my knowledge that many old caravans have asbestos ceilings. Asbestos may be a good insulator, but it's also a deathtrap. Merely slamming a door or window, or closing the roof hatch, let alone driving the caravan over a bumpy country road, can cause sufficient vibrations for asbestos particles to drop into the breathing space of the occupants within. Some people, too, actually walk on caravan roofs, occasionally, to lower larger furniture items, such as cocktail bar fridges or large televisions, through the roof hatches, because such items cannot fit through the doors or windows. This, of course, loosens up the asbestos too.

In light of the above information, I would like to see the following action:

• A campaign to educate citizens to the dangers of living in asbestos-lined caravans.

• Free and safe disposal of contaminated caravans at no expense to the (usually poor) occupants, with alternative accommodation provided.

• That all caravan parks are not to be allowed to rent out asbestos-ridden caravans.

• That asbestos-ridden caravans must not be allowed to be registered as roadworthy.

• That those caravan-dwellers found to have been exposed to asbestos should be entitled to free health monitoring, and compensation where necessary.

• That the practice of using old caravans--with asbestos ceilings--as kids' cubby houses, granny flats, teen rumpus rooms, fringe-dwellings, chookhouses etc should be discouraged. (Just walking within such a caravan is enough to dislodge fibres!)

These dwellings are, clearly, unsafe, and the public should be educated about this. It is often the most disadvantaged people, the poorest people, who dwell in caravans.