NUT: All Party Parliamentary Group calls for urgent action on asbestos in schools
Thursday, 2 February 2012
1:24 PM
Commenting on a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health (APPG) which exposes the dangerous levels of asbestos in schools Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers’ union, said:
“We wholeheartedly welcome the intervention of the APPG on the issue of asbestos in schools. As the Chair of the Committee, Jim Sheridan MP, said, it is indeed a national scandal that asbestos continues to be present in our schools.
“The NUT was the first teachers’ union to campaign to have asbestos removed from schools and yet despite the problem being brought to the attention of successive governments, it is still the case that asbestos remains in most schools.
“Asbestos does not just harm, it kills, which makes it quite unbelievable that as a country we allow children and staff in schools to be exposed to it.
“The APPG has made six eminently sensible recommendations. Now is the time for the Government to stop burying its head in the sand, acknowledge the extent of the problem and begin to address it.”
End PR15-21012
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