Risk management and occupational safety specialists Lucion Services have launched a new campaign to highlight the hazards of asbestos-containing materials in schools.

 

The Asbestos in Schools initiative comes as Lucion publishes its new White Paper, setting out the case for reassurance air monitoring using high powered Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

A campaign video features Lucion’s CEO Dr Patrick Morton warning about the possibility of harmful airborne asbestos fibres finding their way into the classroom and other areas, where they could be inhaled by teachers and pupils.

This can lead to damaging health effects in both teachers and children and in severe cases, people developing fatal illnesses such as mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos.

The video forms part of a wider campaign to highlight the problem of asbestos in schools, and more importantly what can be done to enable the risks to be identified and assessed more effectively.

There remains widespread concern over the potential damage to health from asbestos despite Health & Safety Executive and legal duties on schools that help to cut the risks.

Lucion says there should no longer be any excuse for anyone being exposed to potentially dangerous levels of airborne asbestos fibres.

Advanced Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technology can improve the measurement of the number of airborne fibres than traditional techniques, and should be considered as part of an annual re-inspection programme.

This approach can improve the way asbestos is measured in school premises, enabling experts to better assess the risk and provide recommendations for its safe handling and, if necessary, removal.

Dr Morton said:

“There is no safe limit for asbestos for teachers and pupils to breathe and the campaign will help those who have a duty of care in our schools to understand better the situation and the capabilities of modern monitoring and analytical technology.

“Utilising SEM technology gives duty holders a major opportunity to establish new standards of best practice for air sampling and monitoring which will better protect the health and safety of our schools.”