Archive for the ‘Asbestos in the Press’ Category
A Higher Education In Risk From Asbestos Containing Materials
The continuing risk from asbestos found in many schools around the UK was raised once again by recent news of further deaths from mesothelioma, believed to be caused by the presence of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) at two teaching institutions in the north of England.
The announcement that a full asbestos survey is to be conducted alongside planned renovations of the apartment at Kensington Palace where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton are to reside is a reminder that asbestos material is a deadly time capsule which still lies buried in some half a million properties around the UK.
Every year 1.8 million people in the UK are exposed to asbestos and at least 2,000 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed. Between 2007 and 2008, deaths from mesothelioma increased by three per cent to 2,249.
Asbestos awareness, for circumstances when it is least expected, is of course, still a matter of life and death. One vital group of workers in constant danger of exposure to asbestos yet rarely mentioned are the emergency services.
Secondary exposure to asbestos, equally a deadly health threat, occurs where a spouse or members of the same family are also at high risk of contracting mesothelioma or other asbestosis diseases because the asbestos fibres have been brought home on boiler suits, work clothes, footwear and even in the hair.