ASBESTOS: The Deadly Legacy in our Schools

Up to 150 school workers and pupils are at risk of death or fatal exposure from asbestos each year as current plans to fix the UK’s crumbling schools fail to address the deadly building material, experts have warned.

A group of leading health charities, professional bodies, unions and campaigners has accused Rishi Sunak’s Government of “abandoning” attempts to deal with the “schools asbestos crisis”.

Asbestos was banned in 1999 but was used extensively in England from the 50s to the mid-80s. In February 2017, the Department for Education published a report that found 83 per cent of English state schools reported that asbestos was present in their school estate.

The group – made up of the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), Asbestos victims’ groups, Mesothelioma UK, and education unions – are calling on the next government to take more robust action and set a deadline for the complete removal of asbestos from all schools.

They estimate that current plans will mean that 15 school workers in the UK will die annually from exposure and cite US research on asbestos which suggests that this means 135 pupils will be fatally exposed to asbestos each year.

The data from the Environmental Protection Agency in the US revealed that for every teacher dying from mesothelioma, an incurable cancer which can develop decades after asbestos exposure, nine pupils would die in middle or old age.

In a joint message, the group said the current school rebuilding plan “fails to address the growing risk to teachers, workers and pupils” and criticised data collection methods used to assess buildings which, according to government documents, do not report on hazardous materials, principally asbestos.

The experts said the Department for Education (DfE) has effectively “ceased to monitor” the condition of asbestos in schools and hope to put pressure on political leaders to act ahead of the election.

The Government argues that asbestos management in schools and other buildings is regulated by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Asbestos is the biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, according to the HSE. Around 5,000 UK workers a year die from asbestos-related diseases including mesothelioma.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that 371 teaching and education professionals died from mesothelioma from 2010 to 2020.

The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC), representing teaching unions, estimates that between 1980-2017 between 5,000 and 10,000 school pupils and staff died from mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure in their former schools from the 60s-80s.

Wendy Gregory, 68, a former teaching assistant who was diagnosed with mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos at a primary school in the 80s and 90s, told i it was “absolutely devastating” that teachers and pupils were still at risk.

Liz Darlison, the chief executive of charity Mesothelioma UK, said:

“We have demonstrated that the incidence of the disease amongst school and health workers is far higher than reported.

“Clearly, management of asbestos in situ isn’t working for a variety of reasons. Not least because what is assessed as safe on the day of inspection can change immediately in a high throughput environment.”

In a joint statement, the group criticised the way in which the DfE currently collects data on the physical condition of the 22,000 schools in England.

A Commons Committee of Public Accounts report on reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in November said the DfE had “incomplete knowledge” of asbestos in schools.

The “unexpected presence of asbestos” had complicated ongoing work to address RAAC, the committee said, as it called for DfE evidence it has “a full picture of asbestos across the school estate”.

Professor Kevin Bampton, chief executive of BOHS, said the Condition Data Collection (CDC) methodology does not automatically prioritise asbestos and the risk is only considered when raised as an exceptional factor.

This could mislead schools returning CDC information and was unlikely to prevent future deaths, he said.

He believes the current approach of leaving asbestos where it is “is storing up poison for the future”.

“My children go to a school with an asbestos problem. It’s too late for me to prevent them from having been exposed,” he said.

“My daughter literally has an asbestos sign in her bedroom which was blowing around the playground.

“But I definitely don’t want my grandchildren to be still dealing with this problem when asbestos in schools is in an even worse condition.

“Asbestos is not a problem of the past, any more than climate change is. It is a deadly legacy, we bequeath future generations, if we don’t act now.”

For a school to be eligible for exceptional school funding, the asbestos must have already caused an exposure risk or be in a condition that would cause a direct risk to human health, the group said.

The experts are calling on any future government to commit to legislation for a national action plan for asbestos management and a deadline for removal from schools.

Sarah Lyon, a National Education Union lead on asbestos, said: “The odds are stacked against schools successfully bidding for a rebuild, with so many hoops to jump through (the guidance seems to be suggesting that people have to have been put at risk by exposure before action will even be considered) and removal would be cost effective.”

The group also want a publicly available register of asbestos in schools, including information about condition, risk and management plans.

Other demands include ensuring school workers who are likely to have been exposed to asbestos are properly trained, and that governors and parents are given information and training on asbestos.

The Faculty of Asbestos Assessment and Management (FAAM), the professional body for those managing asbestos risks, is concerned that teachers are being left to fend for themselves.

Jonathan Grant, chair of FAAM, said:

“Asbestos management requires complex risk assessment and constant vigilance.

“Less than 2 per cent of maintenance and other workers in schools who might need to disturb asbestos had appropriate training and 13 per cent did not even have asbestos awareness training.

“That’s like putting someone in a minefield, but not giving them a map.”

The HSE says annual deaths from mesothelioma are expected to decline during this decade, as asbestos has been banned for almost 25 years and legal protections are in place.

A 2022/23 HSE inspection campaign of more than 400 schools showed that the majority of schools were managing asbestos safely, the HSE said, with inspections on compliance in schools and elsewhere ongoing.

But Charles Pickles, an asbestos campaigner, said it would take hundreds of years to rid schools of the “toxic carcinogen” unless the UK planned to remove asbestos from buildings.

“The general message is that we don’t want to panic parents and pupils at a time of declining school attendance,” he said.

“However, that message is also being used to undermine accountability and bury the issues. It’s also patronising to suggest parents should be kept in the dark about a genuine risk to their children’s health.”

The DfE says responsible bodies could nominate schools for the School Rebuilding Programme, including evidence where asbestos could no longer be effectively managed, with schools and local authorities responsible for keeping buildings safe.

The department said it follows HSE advice that provided asbestos-containing materials are in good condition, and unlikely to be disturbed, it is generally safest to manage them in place.

Source: iNews