Asbestos Worries in Welsh Schools After Wall Damage
by CCUK Support
Fears are being raised over potential asbestos exposure in schools located in the Welsh town of Conwy. This comes after a pupil recently damaged a wall that exposed the deadly material but was not flagged up when inspections then took place following the incident.
This has led to the education department at Conwy council asking for £100,000 in order to resurvey all schools in the county due to concerns over these potentially inaccurate inspections that officers reported to the council had “raised alarm bells”.
The Welsh government published guidance in 2019 that stated every school will need to have a suitable, sufficient and up to date survey of all school buildings to investigate the possible presence of asbestos. After this, a report sent to the cabinet officers at the council explained that they were still relying on surveys for their asbestos management duties which took place “as far back as 20 years ago”.
Based on evidence from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, there are 59 schools in the Conwy area that are known to contain asbestos and that many of their asbestos registers show “numerous items of ‘presumed asbestos'” and that they were in need of an enhanced survey to help the council focus on them further.
This all comes after the UK government’s committee on carcinogenicity had confirmed in 2013 that children were at risk from asbestos more than adults due to the fact that they will live longer thus there is a greater opportunity for an asbestos related disease to develop.
You can find out more details on the above stories in the following article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56217601
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