Pupils and teachers face a ‘tsunami’ of deaths as crumbling schools ‘riddled with asbestos’

Hundreds of thousands of students and teachers across the UK will die from exposure to asbestos, a bombshell report has claimed.

The electrical and thermal insulator, which can be found in many British schools, could bring with it a “tsunami” of deaths from cancer as many buildings begin to deteriorate.

The Joint Union Asbestos Committee (JUAC) has warned that over 21,000 schools in the UK could be at risk, thanks to the toxic building material which has been dubbed a “silent killer”.

Liz Darlison, chief executive of Mesothelioma UK, said that “is like a bomb that is slowly exploding”.

Since 1980, at least 1,400 teachers and support staff and 12,600 pupils have died from mesothelioma – the aggressive cancer that inhalation of asbestos fibres causes.

This number is only forecast to get bigger and bigger in the next 20 to 60 years, as crumbling school buildings place more people in the firing line for danger.

JUAC had produced a report following an investigation involving eight education unions. It states: “Hundreds of thousands of students and staff, exposed to asbestos in their schools since the mid-1990s, are predicted to die from mesothelioma.’

It adds: “Crucially, the evidence in this report suggests that [asbestos] is likely to be a tsunami in the UK. Their deaths would be the consequence of ineffective asbestos regulations and a cost-cutting culture that wrongly implies ‘asbestos is safe so long as it is not disturbed’.”

More to follow…