Asbestos is in 90% of schools
March 23rd 2009 Nearly nine in 10 schools contain deadly asbestos, the Daily Mirror has found in research it has undertaken as part of its Asbestos Timebomb campaign.
The paper says it can reveal the biggest and most shocking picture yet of asbestos in schools and other public buildings after compiling results from freedom of information requests made to local authorities across the UK.
More than a dozen councils responded, admitting that 2,917 out of their 3,286 schools were built using asbestos. That means that in total more than 22,000 of Britain's 25,000 schools could be contaminated with asbestos. Between 1980 and 2005, 178 teachers died from mesothelioma, the lung disease caused by inhaling asbestos dust - and worryingly the number is rising.
"For every teacher who may have been exposed to asbestos, up to 30 children have probably been similarly exposed," warned Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
"Because asbestos-related illnesses take between 15 to 60 years to develop it is impossible to know how many will become ill or die as a result of exposure."
Asbestos has also been found recently on the new 2012 Olympic site in Stratford, East London, and within the Houses of Parliament.
The Mirror's Asbestos Timebomb campaign includes a number 10 petition with five key demands:
1. A £10 million National Centre for Asbestos Related Disease to find better treatment, alleviate suffering and find a cure for mesothelioma.
2. Compensation reinstated for victims of “pleural plaques” – scars on lungs caused by asbestos – after it was scrapped two years ago.
3. Fair and equal compensation for asbestos disease sufferers who can’t trace the insurers of the bosses who exposed them, through a new Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau paid for by the insurance industry.
4. A public register of all asbestos surveys carried out on public buildings.
5. The Health and Safety Executive must be given the resources to meet its own targets for inspecting asbestos removal work.
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