Exposure to asbestos in classrooms is claiming the life of a teacher a month from cancer, shocking new official figures reveal.
And for every teacher at risk from the deadly building material used in almost all older schools at least 20 children are also exposed to the threat.
New statistics show 64 school teachers have died from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma in the past five years. In all at least 272 teachers have suffered from the horrific cancer since figures began to be collated a little over a decade ago.
Michael Lees, who has campaigned to expose asbestos in schools since his teacher wife Gina died from mesothelioma, said: The Conservative-led coalition refuses to order an audit of asbestos in schools.”
In opposition Nick Gibb, schools minister, said the problem of asbestos in schools must not be swept under the carpet, yet now his Government is doing just that, saying risk assessments are the responsibility of local authorities, which are so strapped for cash it is the last sort of thing they are going to do if they are not forced to.
Deadly fibres of asbestos from school walls can be released by something as simple as a teacher using drawing pins to put up notices or by day-to-day wear. Once the fibres get into the lungs, they can cause cancer decades later.
A report commissioned by the Environment Department warned that Britain has the highest rate of mesothelioma in the world. Most older post-war schools contain asbestos and most of it is amosite, the deadly brown form. The report added: It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that the entire school population has been exposed to asbestos.
Two years ago mother-of-two Dianne Willmore died at 49 of mesothelioma before she could spend 240,000 she was awarded after convincing a judge her cancer had been caused when she was a pupil at school in Huyton, Liverpool.
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