The Joint Union Asbestos Campaign (JUAC) is today calling on the government to boost safety standards, by placing a requirement on local authorities to give parents and school workers an annual report of the asbestos risk in schools.

Although every year asbestos related mesothelioma claims the lives of 16 UK teachers, and more than 70% of school buildings contain asbestos, the Health and Safety Executive policy has recently cut school inspections.

Schools will no longer be proactively inspected, even though the HSE's know that a significant proportion of local authorities have serious flaws in the asbestos management systems, which they have a statutory duty to maintain.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"Despite the warnings, and the heavy death toll, less is going to be done to protect school workers and children from the threat of asbestos. We are calling on the Government to boost safety by introducing legislation to make sure local authorities assess the risk of asbestos, and let staff and parents know about them. School staff and parents have a right to know that their school is a safe place to work in and learn in."

Julie Winn, Chair of the Joint Union Asbestos Campaign (JUAC), said:

"In the past thirty years, almost 230 teachers have died of mesothelioma. More than 60% of those deaths have occurred in the last decade. It's an alarming upward trend, and for every affected teacher, there's a classroom full of children, and school support staff, who have been exposed to the same danger. If we are ever to solve this deathly problem, a policy of complete openness is essential, and must be introduced as a matter of urgency."

An ex-teacher, Carole Hagedorn, from Chelmsford, said:

"I was diagnosed with mesothelioma after a 35-year career in teaching. Needless to say, I had not imagined teaching to have such deadly potential. It is shameful that some schools are failing to protect children and staff in them. We must get a grip of this problem."

More than half of the country's 23,800 primary and secondary school were built in the thirty-year period after 1945, when the use of Asbestos-Containing Materials (ACMs) was at its peak. ACMs are still commonly found in school partition walls, lagging and ceiling panels, and they are released into the air if the structures are not well maintained, or if there is an explosive incident. In March 2011, in Hungerford Primary School, a hydrogen balloon exploded during a chemistry demonstration, shaking asbestos dust from ceiling panels onto 70 pupils.

In America, there are tougher rules to govern the safety of asbestos in schools. In 1986, the United States Congress passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act or AHERA. This requires all schools to audit their ACMs and develop appropriate management plans, and for each school authority to regularly inform parents and teachers of that plan. ACMs have to be communicated to parents and teachers every six months, and this has transformed the issue of asbestos in American schools.

Source:
UNISON