Asbestos

Members: concerned about asbestos? Click here to contact Voice

"Schools volunteer for asbestos testing": Teachers TV News, 24 July 2009

"Asbestos activists to carry out tests on schools": Independent on Sunday, 19 July 2009

Presentation on Asbestos in Schools (February 2009) (PowerPoint)

Voice calls for schools asbestos audit (February 2009)

BBC Inside Out South East: Asbestos – the tip of the iceberg (January 2009)

Asbestos in Schools

How to check your school’s asbestos management (Asbestos in Schools)

HSE: Managing Asbestos

Further information/links

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Press release: 18 February 2008

Statement on ITN report on asbestos

Voice has commented on the ITN report on asbestos in schools (15 February 2008). (View programme)

General Secretary Philip Parkin said: "These findings are of great concern.  It is now time for all schools to be checked and appropriate action taken. Where safety dictates, the asbestos must be removed and disposed of safely.

"Schools are generally safe places and the general picture of effective health and safety procedures in schools is to the credit of the school workforce and governors. These procedures are underpinned by informed risk assessment and proportionate control measures. Our concern about the asbestos issue is the lack of information and basic knowledge available to schools and governing bodies.

"There has been no official national assessment of the extent of the asbestos problem in schools. Our experience is that, in local authority maintained schools, head teachers, staff and governing bodies have been neither adequately informed nor adequately trained. There are now increasing numbers of schools outside local authority control with direct responsibility for health and safety resting with the governors.

"It is believed that most staff working in schools do not know the locations of asbestos in their schools and there is no Health and Safety Executive guidance compelling schools to tell staff and parents. Apparently this is because the HSE believes in protecting the public from things that may cause alarm. The HSE believes people should be informed on a need-to-know basis rather than a right-to-know. PAT believes there is a right-to-know.

"The DCSF, HSE and others are doing good work on the sensible management of risk, but, in relation to asbestos, we don’t know what the risk is and this is totally unsatisfactory."

Notes

1. Along with other organisations, Voice shares the concerns of Mr Michel Lees who has been campaigning on this issue. Mr Lees’s wife, Gina, was a primary school teacher for 30 years and died of mesothelioma at the age of 51. She did not know that her school contained asbestos when she regularly stuck drawing pins into the ceiling tiles in order to display the children’s work. After her death, Mr Lees discovered that asbestos was in the school building and was contained in all of the ceiling tiles. 

His campaigning led to the HSE issuing guidance telling teachers not to stick drawing pins in walls and ceilings. Mr Lees has subsequently found out that 13,000 schools were built when the use of asbestos was at its height and many other schools were refurbished at the same time, so that the majority of the 24,000 schools in the UK have asbestos-containing materials in them.

He also found that the numbers of teachers dying from asbestos-related diseases is on the increase.

Teacher deaths from asbestos-related mesothelioma:

Between 1980 and 1985: 21

Between 1986 and 1990: 36

Between 1991 and 1995: 53

Between 1996 and 2000: 69

                                                            (Source: SecEd)

Michael Lees, Asbestos in Schools: www.asbestosexposureschools.co.uk/ ("The aim of this site is to inform parents, teachers and ancillary staff about asbestos in schools. It gives guidance on how to improve the management of asbestos in schools. It aims to encourages openness in the UK Government’s policy towards asbestos in schools." "Following ITN News report of Friday 15 February: Paper on Release of asbestos fibres in System Build schools for down load" (pdf)

2. Voice has experience of asbestos concerns from within its own membership. In May, Derby City Council was fined £50,000 following the disturbance of asbestos at a primary school in 2004.

3. PAT/Voice has supported Graham Cox MP in seeking a parliamentary debate on the issue of asbestos in schools. Jim Knight, the Minister for Schools, writing to John Denham MP in June 2007, said: "We do not intend to hold a debate as we consider that asbestos in schools is being adequately handled by the DfES and the HSE."

Further information:

ITN programme on asbestos in schools (February 2008)

"HSE may test schools for asbestos at ITV investigation": Building,  18 February 2008

CLASP schools - statement by the Health and Safety Executive, 15 February 2008

HSE:

Asbestos in system buildings - duty holder checklist (September 2008)

Asbestos: An important message for schools (pdf) 

Further information, including The Duty to Manage Asbestos

www.hse.gov.uk/services/education/asbestos.htm 

www.teachernet.gov.uk/asbestos

ATAC (Asbestos Testing And Consultancy Association)

Other info:

Health & Safety Information: Voice, April 2008  (pdf)

General Secretary’s 2007 Conference speech  (Word doc.)

ends

Contacts: Principal Officer (Solicitor) David Brierley (davidbrierley@voicetheunion.org.uk), General Secretary Philip Parkin (philipparkin@voicetheunion.org.uk) or Communications Officer Richard Fraser (pressoffice@voicetheunion.org.uk) on 01332 372 337.