In my previous article "Asbestos - Still the silent killer, still found in Schools" I covered the dangers that asbestos posed to the most unlikely of people. The Guardian newspaper has now reported that asbestos in schools is a "ticking timebomb".
It has been said that nearly all the 14,000 UK schools built between 1945 and 1975 contain asbestos as do schools refurbished during that period. Local Government Associations have reported that decontamination work is being delayed because of conflicts over who is responsible for removal costs.
The Department for Education’s latest audit of the condition of school buildings excluded asbestos, an “oversight” which is indicative of the Government’s failure to engage with the “asbestos timebomb.”
But as long as the late 1980s local authorities knew that many of their schools contained asbestos and that such asbestos posed a risk to health. Many, such as the Labour controlled Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), had plans in place to remove all asbestos from schools through a rolling programme running over a period of 20 years or more. Had Central Government not abolished ILEA and wrested control of spending from local authorities it is possible that all asbestos could have been removed from schools by now. But that has not happened.
Original Story - The Guardian
Image Credit - Wikipedia