Asbestos in Schools

Sunday Express

A teacher's story
Express Leader "Safe schools can save nation"
Article: Why is asbestos still alowed to kill teachers and threaten pupils?

(29 March 2009)

Rosie Peters story: I now have this terrible disease, but it need not have happened Rosie Peters taught children with hearing difficulties for 39 years. She was always an active person who had a passion for scuba diving. Now 62, she was diagnosed with incurable mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, a year ago. Rosie said: “As a peripatetic teacher I went to hundreds of schools. Many were built after the war and were in quite a state. I had no idea I was in any danger. I knew about plumbers and men who worked in shipyards, but not about teachers.” “When I was first diagnosed doctors asked if I could have come into contact with asbestos. I was forever pinning charts onto walls and now that I have been shown asbestos websites with pictures of damaged ceiling tiles, I can see that these are exactly the sort of conditions in which I worked. We used fan heaters in freezing classrooms and it has been shown that these blasted any asbestos in the rooms straight at the people closest to it when it was first switched on.” Rosie has had chemotherapy to stop her lungs filling with water. “Even going to the shops I have to lean on the trolley, she said. When I see eight-year-olds rushing around I get angry. I was such a fit person who always looked after herself and I have this terrible disease which need not have happened if I had been looked after in my professional environment” Sunday Express Leader Article Safe Schools Can Save Nation It is an outrage that 272 teachers have died from cancer caused by breathing in particles of asbestos in classrooms. Asbestos is an invisible killer but we have known the dangers it poses long enough to eradicate the risk. The teachers probably had no idea they were working in such dangerous conditions but the authorities did. Asbestos fibres are in the wall and ceiling cavities and exposure to small quantities can be fatal. What can be done to protect staff and pupils from further danger? There are 25,000 schools in Britain and as many as 90% contain asbestos. The only safe solution is to demolish the contaminated schools and build new asbestos free structures. A massive rebuilding scheme for schools would cost a fraction of the amount we have poured into banks. It would help beat the recession as the project would employ thousands. The new schools will be better than the old and safer for children and teachers. Money well spent. The full article "Why is asbestos still being allowed to kill teachers and threaten thousands of pupils?"
Michael Lees 4 Jan 2006 ml@asbestosexposureschools.co.uk

Rosie Peters story: I now have this terrible disease, but it need not have happened

Rosie Peters taught children with hearing difficulties for 39 years. She was always an active person who had a passion for scuba diving.

Now 62, she was diagnosed with incurable mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, a year ago.

Rosie said: “As a peripatetic teacher I went to hundreds of schools. Many were built after the war and were in quite a state. I had no idea I was in any danger. I knew about plumbers and men who worked in shipyards, but not about teachers.”

“When I was first diagnosed doctors asked if I could have come into contact with asbestos. I was forever pinning charts onto walls and now that I have been shown asbestos websites with pictures of damaged ceiling tiles, I can see that these are exactly the sort of conditions in which I worked. We used fan heaters in freezing classrooms and it has been shown that these blasted any asbestos in the rooms straight at the people closest to it when it was first switched on.”

Rosie has had chemotherapy to stop her lungs filling with water.

“Even going to the shops I have to lean on the trolley, she said. When I see eight-year-olds rushing around I get angry. I was such a fit person who always looked after herself and I have this terrible disease which need not have happened if I had been looked after in my professional environment”

Sunday Express Leader Article

Safe Schools Can Save Nation

It is an outrage that 272 teachers have died from cancer caused by breathing in particles of asbestos in classrooms. Asbestos is an invisible killer but we have known the dangers it poses long enough to eradicate the risk.

The teachers probably had no idea they were working in such dangerous conditions but the authorities did. Asbestos fibres are in the wall and ceiling cavities and exposure to small quantities can be fatal. What can be done to protect staff and pupils from further danger?

There are 25,000 schools in Britain and as many as 90% contain asbestos. The only safe solution is to demolish the contaminated schools and build new asbestos free structures. A massive rebuilding scheme for schools would cost a fraction of the amount we have poured into banks. It would help beat the recession as the project would employ thousands.

The new schools will be better than the old and safer for children and teachers. Money well spent.

The full article "Why is asbestos still being allowed to kill teachers and threaten thousands of pupils?"

Michael Lees 4 Jan 2006
ml@asbestosexposureschools.co.uk