Despite stringent regulations being in place to protect the health and safety of school children, schools are failing to screen them against asbestos. The Asbestos Training and Consultancy Association made the claims after a survey of 16 schools suggested that asbestos was still a danger.
Asbestos becomes deadly when it is damaged or disturbed and its fibres are inhaled and can cause a host of diseases including mesothelioma, asbestosis and pleural plaques. Experts say that over half of the schools visited contained this damaged asbestos. The governments policy is for schools to leave asbestos in place, yet the Association claims that many schools lacked the resources to manage it safely.
The effective management of asbestos in schools is essential because children are particularly vulnerable to developing disease after an exposure to asbestos. The survey presents worrying statistics for parents and teachers, as about 75% of Britains schools contain asbestos which has prompted the deaths of approximately 178 teachers from asbestos-related illnesses between 1980 and 2005 and could cause the deaths of an unknown number of children in later life. The increasing numbers of asbestos-related deaths is testament that the management policy has failed.
Carole Hagerdon worked in secondary schools for around 13 years before she began to show symptoms of the deadly lung cancer mesothelioma. She is devastated by the diagnosis and wishes to warn parents and teachers of the dangers of asbestos so that the same thing can be prevented in the future. At just 58 she has a prognosis of 6 months left to live. The density of asbestos in schools can be determined from the disease rate among teachers, which is 10 times that of the average man among male teachers and around 2.5 times for women teachers.
There are now calls for asbestos to be completely moved from all schools as management is obviously not working. It will have to be seen the effect it will have on our children in the future.
AMS provide a full range of services to assist in managing asbestos in buildings, including asbestos surveys, asbestos management plans and analytical services.