The silent assassin

The HSE and local authorities are making asbestos management in independent schools a priority for 2010, since the sector is less advanced in its planning than the maintained sector. Sharon Liburd reports

Schools are under a legal obligation to manage asbestos. They must, as part of their health and safety policies and procedures, have a written policy that spells out how they do so. In the last 25 years, at least 178 teachers have died from mesothelioma, one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, which is linked to asbestos exposure.

School caretakers have been identified as being particularly at risk due to the nature of their work. Cases highlighted last year include:
• a head of history who died from untreatable cancer, who was likely to have been exposed when he had frequent access to his classroom’s store cupboard which had shelves made of asbestos; and
• the death of a cleaner of a school building which had asbestos in the internal partition walls that had been disturbed by drawing pins and where there was general wear and tear (compensation of £110,000 awarded).

Asbestos is the biggest single cause of work-related deaths in Britain, resulting in around 4,000 deaths each year, with numbers expected to increase. About 75 per cent of schools in Britain contain asbestos. Yet many are not aware that asbestos is present in the workplace until repairs or renovations take place. Managing asbestos helps to minimise the risk to both staff and pupils of exposure and avoid costly compensation claims.

Under fire
Earlier in 2010, it was announced that the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and local authorities are making asbestos management in non-local authority schools a priority for action in 2010. The HSE has the power to prosecute employers for breaches of asbestos safety laws and, if found guilty, they may be fined substantial sums.

Asbestos was widely used as a building material in the UK from the 1940s through to the mid-1980s. Schools that were built or refurbished during this period are therefore likely to have large amounts of asbestos.

The three main diseases caused by asbestos are:
• mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the lung);
• asbestosis (scarring of the lungs); and
• lung cancer.
These diseases, which have no cure, can take between 15 and 60 years to develop.

Asbestos is still present in many schools, for example:
• in the lagging of boilers, pipe work and insulating jackets for cold water tanks;
• asbestos insulation boards were widely used in school classrooms, corridors, toilets, kitchens and other rooms;
• sprayed asbestos was used for fire protection and thermal insulation; and
• in ceiling and floor tiles, textured decorative coatings (such as Artex), fire doors and cloth (eg stage safety curtains and fire blankets).

Your responsibility
Employers’ obligations to asbestos are contained in the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006, which require them to take reasonable steps to prevent its exposure in the workplace. If this cannot be achieved, measures must be taken to reduce the risk of exposure to the lowest possible level. Under these regulations, responsibility for managing asbestos lies with the duty holder, who can be the owner of the premises, the employer or someone who has responsibility for managing maintenance and repair.

In independent schools, this can be the headteacher, bursar, site manager or other senior manager. Regulation 10 states that every employer must provide sufficient training, information and instruction to employees who work to help it to comply with these regulations, those who supervise asbestos work as well as those who are, or may be, exposed to asbestos. This training should be given at regular intervals and must include:
• the properties of asbestos and its effect on health;
• the types of products likely to contain asbestos;
• what work would cause asbestos exposure and the importance of preventative measures;
• how work can be undertaken safely and what protective equipment is needed;
• emergency procedures;
• hygiene facilities;
• decontamination procedures; and
• medical examination requirements.

As thousands of education staff and pupils are potentially at risk of asbestos exposure, the role of the duty holder is crucial. The regulations require duty holders to:
• presume that asbestos is present unless there is strong evidence to the contrary;
• take reasonable steps to find out the location, amount and condition of the asbestos;
• keep an up-to-date record of the location and condition of the asbestos;
• assess the risk of anyone being exposed to asbestos;
• prepare a plan setting out how risks will be managed;
• provide information that identifies the location and condition of the asbestos to anyone likely to disturb it, eg members of staff and building contractors; and
• review and monitor the plan periodically.

Schools should make checks each term to see if the asbestos-bearing materials have deteriorated, been damaged or disturbed and update the plan annually.

Careful planning
Under regulation 11, employers have a duty to prevent employees from asbestos exposure, so far as is reasonably practicable. If exposure cannot be prevented, it must be reduced to the lowest possible level, without employees and others present having to use masks. The regulations prescribe a control limit of 0.1 fibres per millilitre of air measured over four hours, which no one must exceed. If the inhaled concentration of asbestos goes over this limit, work must cease in the affected area until the exposure level falls below the control limit and measures taken to ensure that there is no recurrence. No employee should be exposed to asbestos in a concentration which exceeds the control limit and if this happens, s/he should be informed.

Where an employee has been exposed to asbestos, the employer must:
• keep a health record on her/him for at least 40 years;
• ensure that s/he undertakes medical surveillance by an appointed doctor or an employment medical adviser;
• provide a medical examination not more than two years before the start of the exposure and at intervals of no more than two years;
• pay for an examination of the chest (which should take place during working hours);
• inform the employee if the examination shows any disease or ill health from the exposure; and
• allow the employee access to her/his health records.

It is imperative for independent schools to take urgent steps to ensure that they manage asbestos effectively so that risks of exposure to staff and student are kept to an absolute minimum and to avoid costly litigation and/or prosecution and damage to reputation.

Sharon Liburd is a solicitor for ATL. 

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