Angus Group Ltd

Asbestos Within Schools [return]
With some 75 per cent of schools containing asbestos, solicitor David Brierley says that we must not relax controls over the deadly substance.

It is almost a year since Lord Young’s report Common Sense, Common Safety was published.

This was a review of health and safety, commissioned by the government, which made recommendations for improving the way health and safety is applied.

The report was welcomed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and prime minister David Cameron, who set out the government’s intention to focus regulations where they were most needed, with a new system that is proportionate, not bureaucratic, and which reinstates some common sense and trust.

A number of Lord Young’s recommendations are being actioned this year. The HSE has put forward for consultation a classroom risk-assessment for schools to use, and an independent review of health and safety legislation is taking place, aimed at combining and simplifying health and safety legislation.

The government has already announced its intention to abolish the Adventure Activities Licensing Agency, which runs a licensing scheme for adventure activity centres, and is consulting on replacing the scheme with a code of practice.

Separately, the Department for Education has replaced its own detailed guidance on school trips with a general summary document. There are also changes to the HSE’s inspection regime – it is no longer carrying out proactive workplace inspections of “low-risk” premises, including local authority schools, while continuing to carry out reactive inspections if an incident is reported to them.

There certainly is a place for common sense in health and safety, however, the school staff unions are concerned that a common theme to these changes is a downgrading of health and safety.

There is no case for relaxing controls in relation to asbestos. Any downgrading or reduction in protection from the threat of asbestos is a serious concern for the unions.

The figures are stark. In the last three years, 16 teachers a year have died from mesothelioma (the lung cavity cancer caused by exposure to asbestos).

Statistics show that 140 school teachers died of mesothelioma in the 10-year period between 1999 to 2008 aged 16 to 74. Around 75 per cent of school buildings contain asbestos.

Action Mesothelioma Day on July 1 was a moving reminder of the dreadful outcomes of exposure to asbestos fibres and dust.

The Asbestos in Schools Campaign continues to take steps forward. Written guidance and online training will be available to schools this term. The goal is properly funded training for headteachers, school managers, teaching and support staff, governors and local authorities.

The school staff unions both individually and collectively through the Joint Union Asbestos Campaign (JUAC) are stressing to schools the need to keep awareness of asbestos management a priority.

The conclusions of an HSE inspection programme on asbestos management in schools outside local authority controls will be published shortly and they are expected to confirm that significant improvement is needed in the standards of asbestos management.

JUAC will continue its campaign for a government policy of openness, following the basic principle of risk-management by assessing the scale of the problem and the risks in our schools.

One key assessment needed urgently is an assessment of the increased vulnerability of children to asbestos and this is now being undertaken by the Department of Health Committee on Carcinogenicity. This is a welcome development and an acknowledgement that children have been exposed to asbestos in schools.

The cause of cases of mesothelioma is a very specialist medical area. Expert opinion is that there is no threshold of exposure below which there is no risk and that all exposure is cumulative. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that all exposures above the normal background levels are considered as causative and as a consequence the local authority concerned was held legally responsible in a claim by a former pupil who developed mesothelioma. Before the case was concluded, she sadly died.

Asbestos obviously a concern in these areas, Angus Group work closely with many local authorities and Private Schools to minimise the risk of exposure. Please feel free to contact us to discuss any concerns or for advice.

Posted on 09 September, 2011