banner unionsafete


Asbestos In Most South East England State Schools

The BBC New online website has reported on a Freedom of information request made by the BBC's Inside Out programme which revealed that potentially-deadly Asbestos remains in more than 90% of schools.

Click here to go to BBC News website itemAccording to the BBC, Kent, Medway, Sussex, Brighton and Surrey councils all revealed a high proportion of properties affected.

Whilst the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called for all asbestos to be removed from all schools, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it would be dangerous to remove asbestos sealed inside buildings.

John Walder, secretary of the NUT Kent branch, is quoted by the BBC as saying: "The NUT's view is quite clear, we think that the solution is the complete removal of asbestos from all the working spaces. As long as local authorities do not remove asbestos from a site, there will be a risk of fibres getting into the atmosphere and getting into people's lungs."
 
After WWII, the majority of state schools in the UK were built using asbestos and most have not yet been replaced.

Many of the schools in the South East have the least harmful white chrysotite asbestos, which was banned in 1999, and the more harmful amosite 'brown asbestos', banned in 1985, with a minority of schools also have the most dangerous blue crocidolite asbestos.

Dr Robin Howie, an independent asbestos consultant, is quoted as saying that the number of teachers dying of asbestos-related diseases in the UK had risen from about one every two years to more than five a year.

"We are looking at a substantially higher number of mesothelioma deaths in teachers than we would expect. What it means is that teacher mesotheliomas are important because they are the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg are the mesotheliomas in children."

Source: BBC New on-line



Designed, Hosted and Maintained by Union Safety Services