Education unions position on asbestos

As education unions, we wish to see a strategy for making our schools and colleges safer from the dangers of asbestos, and we call for the implementation outlined in the Select Committee on Work and Pensions report: for a national risk register detailing the location and condition of asbestos in all public buildings, and a 40-year timeline for its removal. We know that 8 out of 10 schools contain asbestos materials, and note the rising number of education workers among those being diagnosed with asbestos-related cancers. The current policy of ‘safe in situ’ asbestos management is not sustainable: we want it removed; safely, professionally, as soon as practicable. 

Education unions are calling for the following action on asbestos:

• To collect and share data centrally on the extent, type, and condition of all asbestos in schools: for Government to work with HSE to develop a central digital register of asbestos in all non-domestic buildings.
• To develop a programme for the phased removal of all asbestos in educational establishments, starting with the most dangerous first, with completion no later than 2062, and with adequate capital funding made available. This plan should integrate with – and take full account of – proposals for the upgrading of the built environment.
• To prioritise the development of school-specific risk assessments, asbestos air tests and environmental levels which consider the vulnerability of children.
• To support duty holders by providing funded mandatory training on asbestos risk and management, and information to stakeholders, including staff and parents.
• To commit to a sustained increase in asbestos inspection and enforcement activity, and to back this with appropriate and adequate funding over the medium term for regulation and enforcement.
• To commit to reversing anti-trade union legislation so that trade unions might campaign more effectively on issues such as asbestos removal.

Notes: Recent DfE survey work to understand the extensiveness of asbestos across the school estate found that 80 per cent had identified asbestos, including 97 per cent of system builds.

The main types of cancers caused by asbestos are lung cancer and cancer of the lining of the lung (mesothelioma). These diseases can take from 15 to 60 years to develop, and there is no cure for mesothelioma. Asbestos in education buildings can be disturbed by everyday activities, as well as by maintenance and renovation activities.

Deaths of school staff have been increasing steeply since records began in 1980. Between 1980 and 2021, 431 teachers aged under 75 died in Britain from mesothelioma. All individuals working and learning in schools are at risk, and children particularly so, given the long latency period.

The mesothelioma death statistics for the education sector are the tip of the iceberg as they do not show how many people have subsequently died from their asbestos exposure as a child at school. Neither teacher nor support staff deaths include those whose last occupation was not in teaching; support staff deaths are underestimated because many are not included in the national occupational mesothelioma statistics, and mesothelioma deaths of former staff aged 75 and over are also not included. The JUAC Report 2021 estimated that 1,000 teachers and support staff and 9,000 former pupils died from mesothelioma between 1980 and 2017 because they were exposed to asbestos in their former schools.

In 2022, the Select Committee on Work and Pensions published its report on The HSE’s Approach to Asbestos Management in which it recommended that “a deadline now be set for the removal of asbestos from non-domestic buildings within 40 years…focusing on removing the highest risk asbestos first, and the early removal from the highest risk settings including schools.” 

In 2023, the Mesothelioma UK cost-benefit analysis report 'Clearing the Air', provided compelling evidence of the benefits of asbestos removal in schools and hospitals for both public health and the public purse.