Welsh schools 'should implement routine asbestos testing'

Casella Apex2 Personal Dust Monitor

Schools in Wales could begin routinely using air quality monitoring equipment after calls were made to regularly test for airborne asbestos fibres in classrooms.

A recent BBC Wales investigation has led to claims that all schools should be subject to regular air quality monitoring.

The Week In Week Out programme revealed that more than 1,500 (approximately 85 per cent) schools in Wales have asbestos, potentially putting pupils and teachers at risk of deadly mesothelioma.

The disease can take decades to reveal itself and the prognosis for those who contract the form of lung cancer is not good.

However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) claims that if asbestos boards are in good condition and remain undisturbed then workers and members of the public should not be at risk.

Last month, almost 1,000 pupils were moved out of Caerphilly County's Cwmcarn High School after contractors' air quality monitoring equipment revealed asbestos dust fibres in the air.

Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews has since demanded that all schools deliver reports on their respective levels of asbestos, while independent asbestos consultant Robin Howie told the BBC programme that there is requirement for more monitoring of the problem.

"The local council says the fibre levels were between 0.003 and 0.008 fibres per millilitre [in Cwmcarn High School]. From those fibre levels we can look at the risk of those levels to 11-year-olds over five years of developing mesothelioma," he said.

"The acceptable level of risk as defined by HSE is one per million per year that means the risk levels in the school from school's own figures is between 20 and 50 higher than the level of acceptable risk."

Schools and other organisations worried about asbestos in their buildings can either call in experts or invest in equipment from brands such as TSI and Casella.  This can be found on the Frontline Safety website along with a range of other dust and air monitoring equipment.

In other news, the HSE recently revealed that a Cheltenham demolition company has been prosecuted after its workers were exposed to asbestos fibres.

Posted by Shona Innes