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Ceiling Dust
Removalist Case Study
By Elizabeth O'Brien, Coordinator, The
LEAD Group Inc, Manager, Lead Advisory Service (NSW)
On 6th May 1998, a ceiling dust contractor
to whom The LEAD Group's information and referral service had been referring callers since
1996, rang up to say that Channel 7 was doing an item on ceiling dust that night and he
would like to come and show us some information he had gathered.
Later the same day, he brought in
some photos showing evidence that he felt proved the reason why some houses older than 40
years had masses of dust in the ceiling void. He had removed 150 kilograms of dust from
one house in Maroubra (south east Sydney) yet the house next door from the same era had a
lot less dust in the void. The photos showed a coal gas burner in the bathroom of the
"high dust house" with a flue pipe (approximately four inches in diameter)
which, amazingly, had been vented into the ceiling void, rather than to the outside.
Apparently sometime in the 1950s coal gas was no longer
supplied, but the burner remained along with the flue pipe to the ceiling void. His
observation of a coal gas burner still in place allowed the ceiling dust contractor to
finally work out why he had seen so many 4 inch diameter holes covered up in various ways
(sometimes with a brick placed over them, sometimes plastered etc) leading from the
bathroom or kitchen into the ceiling void in a number of homes with a heavy dust load in
the ceiling. He thoughtfully collected a sample of the dust that was sitting in the flue
pipe, and a further sample of dust from the ceiling void itself, to allow comparison of
the levels of various elements after having them analysed at a reputable laboratory. See
the Report of Analysis of Flue Dust and Ceiling Cavity Dust
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