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Archive for the ‘Asbestos in Schools’ Category
Work to tear down a derelict eyesore plagued by vandals has been delayed after the demolition crew found more asbestos than expected.
The demolition of the old theatre, the last remaining building of the former Tresham College in St Mary’s Road, Kettering, will began in two weeks after the asbestos is removed.
Site manager Andy Seeds said: “The only thing that stands as I speak now is the theatre. Another fortnight it should be down.
“It has gone well considering the amount of asbestos that was in the college which we knew about.
“I would say we are 80 per cent done.”
A FORMER Waterloo school is set to be demolished.
Permission to knock down St Edmunds Primary School on Oxford Road has been granted by Sefton Council and work on the site is expected to begin within weeks.
All of the Victorian buildings attached to the school will be demolished apart from one single storey area to the rear.
The building, which is owned by the Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Trustees, has remained vacant for almost two years after pupils were moved into the school next door.
Despite one objection from a nearby homeowner, council officers decided to approve demolition plans on July 27 this year.
One Oxford Road resident raised concerns about the method of demolition, resulting dust levels and presence of asbestos.
But the council were happy with the scheme of demolition submitted and issued the demolition approval notice.
IT could be several weeks before pupils at a Derbyshire special school are able to use their hall again after asbestos was discovered.
Up to 70 pupils at Alfreton Park Community Special School were sent home on Friday, two days after ceiling tiles worked loose in the main hall.
Now asbestos has been found in the girders holding the tiles in place.
The area was immediately sealed off and it will be two weeks before the asbestos can be removed and repairs are carried out.
It is not known if it the hall will be open in time for when pupils return in September.
Head teacher Rosemary McKenzie said it had been a very hectic time for everyone at the school.
She said: “We have been busy creating alternative ways of getting our able-bodied and less able-bodied pupils around the school without going through the hall.
“We have also had to make sure we can get treatment to pupils in cases of emergency.
“It has now been possible to create a sealed tunnel through the hall to make life easier.
“It is good we are breaking up next Thursday. But I think it is unlikely that any work will be finished before we return in September.”
On National Mesothelioma Day, unions ask the government to report annually on asbestos risk in schools, which they hope will cut back on related deaths
The Joint Union Asbestos Campaign (JUAC) is today calling on the government to boost safety standards, by placing a requirement on local authorities to give parents and school workers an annual report of the asbestos risk in schools.
Although every year asbestos-related lung cancer, known as mesothelioma, claims the lives of 16 UK teachers, and more than 70% of school buildings contain asbestos, the Health and Safety Executive policy has recently cut school inspections.
Schools will no longer be proactively inspected, despite what they unions call “a significant proportion” of local authorities have “serious flaws” in the asbestos management systems, which they have a statutory duty to maintain.
Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, said: “Despite the warnings, and the heavy death toll, less is going to be done to protect school workers and children from the threat of asbestos.
“We are calling on the government to boost safety by introducing legislation to make sure local authorities assess the risk of asbestos, and let staff and parents know about them. School staff and parents have a right to know that their school is a safe place to work in and learn in.”
THE refurbishment of Caldervale High has been delayed by the discovery of asbestos under the building.
Workers are now removing the contamination from the site of the Airdrie school, in a project estimated to cost £850,000.
Councillors were informed of the development in an update on the Schools and Centres 21 project presented to the latest meeting of North Lanarkshire’s learning and leisure committee.
A COMPANY has been cleared of all charges in a court case over deadly asbestos at Hugh Christie Technology College.
A jury at Maidstone Crown Court heard Basildon-based firm Advanced Environmental Services was called in to the Tonbridge college’s old building in May 2009 to get rid of asbestos before demolition.
It was alleged the firm failed to observe safety measures, putting workers’ lives at risk.
But on the second day of the three-day trial lawyers for the company argued there was no case to answer and, in a surprise move, the prosecution announced on Wednesday it would be calling no further evidence in the case.
AN asbestos contamination scare caused a GSCE panic for more than 200 Stantonbury students on Monday.
The start of the maths GSCE exam was delayed by over an hour because the desks pupils were due to sit at could have contained asbestos particles.
Pupils were herded into the dining area while staff frantically sourced new desks.
The potential danger was only discovered at the weekend, when a survey of the exam desk store took place prior to planned building work this summer.
EDUCATION chiefs have confirmed that a deteriorating school building still in use by pupils does contain asbestos.
But Stockton Council has said the substance is “contained” in the three-storey block at Ian Ramsey Church of England School.
And the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) added teachers and pupils were not likely to be at risk as long as it was managed safely.
Education bosses have assured parents it is safe for pupils to continue being taught in the building until the autumn, when repair work is due to start.
And the council has said the asbestos will be “managed safely” while the repair work is carried out.
A specialist team has begun to clear the site of a former Nottinghamshire school destroyed in an arson attack.
Dozens of firefighters tackled the blaze at the old Sherwood Hall School in Forest Town, Mansfield, on 4 April.
The site was sealed off soon after when it was confirmed the remains contained asbestos, which can give off dangerous dust.
After the ash is removed, the buildings will be demolished, with the process expected to take three months.
Screens were erected to stop ash being blown onto nearby properties and the school’s playing fields, which are used by the neighbouring Samworth Academy, have been closed.
Mansfield District Council, which is monitoring the work, said the cost of the clean-up will be met by the site’s owners.
Source: BBC News Nottingham
Asbestos Industry News is the online voice for UK Asbestos News. The site covers information about asbestos management, asbestos surveying, asbestos removal, asbestos recruitment, asbestos claims, asbestos waste, asbestos legislation, asbestos inspection, asbestos related disease, asbestos training and much more. Visit www.asbestosindustrynews.co.uk, and subscribe to the RSS feed. or Subscribe to Asbestos Industry News by Email
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British asbestos campaigners have today launched a national survey exploring general awareness and understanding of asbestos in buildings and the regulations designed to protect UK workers from being exposed to asbestos in their workplace.
The survey can be taken here:
The Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011
The survey has been developed in conjunction with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) the organisation that currently accredits over 100 asbestos inspection bodies to carry out asbestos surveys. Known as the Great British Asbestos in Buildings Survey 2011, the survey will be promoted across all industries via the UK’s leading trade associations and trade unions, membership organisations and industry institutions. Tradesmen, building occupiers, dutyholders, clients, FM’s, property managers of non-domestic buildings will be encouraged to take the survey.
According to the HSE, asbestos is responsible for an estimated 4000 deaths each year and is the single greatest cause of work-related deaths in the UK. Results are expected to give an insight into awareness of the Duty to Manage Asbestos and highlight areas for raising awareness of the risks of asbestos in the workplace.
The Survey has the backing of high profile asbestos campaigners across the UK. Annette Brooke MP and Chair of the Asbestos in Schools Group welcomed the survey:
“This survey is a welcome step in the right direction. It is so vital that we highlight the dangers surrounding asbestos and I hope that participation in this survey is as wide as possible. ”
John Richards, Managing Director of analytical and surveying firm, Thames Laboratories said:
“With recent public sector funding cuts and the Government’s review of Health and Safety, we are concerned that this important subject maybe overlooked. Currently in the UK, more people are dying from asbestos exposure than in road accidents and yet our approach to asbestos still ranges from apathy to paranoia.
Recent conflicting reports produced from ATAC and HSE, and the issues of low level asbestos exposure, have led to the development of this research project, aimed at establishing what is really happening”.
Jon Murthy, Marketing & Communications Manager at UKAS said:
“This is the first industry initiative of its kind in which UKAS has participated and we hope to see this repeated annually to measure what improvements are happening within the asbestos sector. UKAS will play its role by ensuring the questionnaire is circulated to as many individuals as possible, from all industry sectors, via Unions, Trade Associations, Industry Institutions and Membership Organisations”.
The survey results will be published in a report in the summer 2011 via the campaign website www.asbestosinspectionbodies.co.uk and should highlight the issues arising from the most comprehensive review of the subject to date.
About 70 primary school children have been exposed to asbestos when a science lesson explosion lifted ceiling tiles in a Berkshire school hall.
Pupils were evacuated from the hall at St Mary’s in Kintbery, Hungerford, when a chemical test involving a hydrogen balloon caused a “sonic reaction”.
Dust that fell from the ceiling tested positive for a small level of asbestos.
Health and safety officers kept the children’s uniforms for testing and the pupils were sent home in their PE kits.
The hall has been sealed off and all parents have been informed.
A West Berkshire Council spokesman said: “I can confirm that during a science lesson at the school today, a planned chemical reaction involving a hydrogen balloon, resulted in a sonic reaction that lifted ceiling tiles in the hall releasing dust.
Uniforms ‘bagged’
“It is known that insulating boards in the ceiling contained low-level asbestos, so the 70 pupils in the hall, and the supervising staff, were evacuated and the hall immediately sealed off.
“Health and safety officers from the local education authority attended the school and carried out air tests.”
He said the tests had “proved positive” for asbestos dust, although levels were very low.
“As a result, the uniforms of the children have been retained at the school and bagged, and the pupils sent home in PE kit.”
He added health and safety officers would return to the school on Friday to continue their investigation.
Source: BBC News Berkshire
Asbestos Industry News is the online voice for UK Asbestos News. The site covers information about asbestos management, asbestos surveying, asbestos removal, asbestos recruitment, asbestos claims, asbestos waste, asbestos legislation, asbestos inspection, asbestos related disease, asbestos training and much more. Visit www.asbestosindustrynews.co.uk, and subscribe to the RSS feed. or Subscribe to Asbestos Industry News by Email
Follow us on Twitter @UK_AsbestosNews
By Rob Blackburn commenting for Silverdell PLC
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“Asbestos has long been known to be a dangerous (as well as a useful) substance, employers and occupiers turned a blind eye to those dangers long after they knew or should have known about them, and mesothelioma is a dreadful disease.” Lady Hale
Implications from Wednesday’s landmark ruling.
Victims of mesothelioma have a life expectancy of just 18 months from diagnosis. Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer caused exclusively by asbestos. Asbestos does not occur naturally in the urban world, but was shipped into the UK in large quantities and added to over 3,000 products. Asbestos was used extensively in building materials and thus found its way into offices, schools, homes and hospitals. It was used extensively from the start of the last century up to the final ban in 1999.
Compensation is due because, as Lord Kerr succinctly puts it, “… employers had, in any event, been prepared to have their employee run the risk of contracting the disease.” Lady Hale added “employers and occupiers turned a blind eye to those dangers long after they knew” It is for these reasons that almost every case of mesothelioma is entitled to compensation.
Victims normally have to decide whether to accept what is offered by those responsible (if anything) or fight a legal battle that inevitably consumes their last days. This is what makes those that take these fights on so special, it is entirely selfless. Neither Dianne Willmore nor Enid Costello lived to see their victory in The Supreme Court, both passed away at different points in the proceedings. The beneficiaries are those that follow in their footsteps.
Context
Problems arose when those that carry the liability for asbestos victims sought to exploit methods of avoiding their obligations. This has ranged from deliberate procrastination to the current attempts to place the onus on victims to prove that ‘which-cannot-be-proved’. Wednesday’s ruling was a unanimous judgement by the Supreme Court that quashed the appeals against both Dianne Willmore and Enid Costello and, in so doing, allows victims to receive compensation with a fair method of proving the liability of those responsible.
The ground for the appeals was that the victims should have to prove that on the balance of probabilities the defendants – Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Grief (UK) Ltd – had caused the disease. This would be entirely plausible if this were possible, but both science and statistics have their limits and in mesothelioma they are both found wanting.
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