A new report by the European Parliament calls for the removal of asbestos from all European public buildings by 2028. East Midlands MEP Glenis Willmott explains why she backs the move.
YOU may not think of education as a dangerous occupation but 128 school teachers died from the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma between 2002 and 2010, according to figures from the Health and Safety Executive.
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MEP Glenis Willmott wants to see asbestos removed from all buildings open to the public.
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MEP Glenis Willmott wants to see asbestos removed from all buildings open to the public.
And the campaign group Asbestos in Schools says that this figure underestimates the true scale of mesothelioma deaths among teachers because it does not include those aged 75 and over.
Asbestos support and campaign groups like the Derbyshire Action Support Team (DAST) report that they are increasingly being contacted by former teachers, lecturers, nurses and other healthcare workers who have been exposed to asbestos while working in schools, colleges, hospitals and other public buildings.
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The individual stories are heart-rending: Gina Lees was a primary school teacher for 30 years and died from mesothelioma aged just 51; Diane Willmore was just 49 when she died from mesothelioma after she was exposed to asbestos dust as a pupil at her old secondary school.
And for every Gina and Diane there is an equivalent family tragedy in parts of every other country in Europe, which is why the report we agreed in the European Parliament recently touches so many lives.
There may well be more in the future. Derby's coroner Dr Robert Hunter recently told the Derby Telegraph ? which has long campaigned to raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos ? that he fears that many more teachers, nurses, pupils and wives of men in manufacturing jobs could develop diseases caused by the dust.
Several women have already developed mesothelioma after they were exposed to asbestos while washing their husbands' contaminated work clothes.
In total, more than 35,000 people died from the asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma in the UK between 1997 and 2007.
There are now some 4,000 asbestos-related deaths every year ? a figure that experts say will keep rising over the next few years.
In Derby and South Derbyshire alone, the coroner's court held 48 inquests into asbestos-related diseases in 2011 compared with 34 in 2005.
Behind these statistics are stories of pain, hardship and bereavement. The families of those diagnosed with mesothelioma frequently talk about their shock and feelings of devastation.
One woman described how she and her husband received the news: "They told us that there was no cure and that Jim probably had approximately 10-12 months to live. Our world fell apart. I went home to tell our two sons, who were aged 21 and 24, the devastating news."
There is no cure for the disease. Many of the deaths occurring now are the legacy of industrial conditions in the 1960s and 70s, the height of asbestos manufacture and use, when workers breathed in asbestos dust while working in traditional industries.
There is usually a long delay, in some cases more than 40 years, from when people are first exposed to asbestos fibres to the onset of disease.
But many workers are still being exposed to asbestos, with those now most at risk being tradespeople like joiners, electricians and plumbers who may come into contact with asbestos while carrying out repairs and maintenance in buildings containing asbestos.
Doctors are also seeing relatively young people coming to them with asbestos-related diseases.
Andrew Burns was born in 1969. He developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos while working as a young apprentice in the electrical installation industry.
That's why the European Parliament report calling for the removal of asbestos from all public buildings and buildings requiring public access by 2028 is so important.
The vast majority of MEPs backed the report, though I was sorry to see that Tory MEPs joined those from the BNP and UKIP ? who continue to argue that white asbestos is "harmless" despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary ? in voting against it.
Fortunately, they were in a minority of just 51 out of 754 MEPs.
The resolution will build on UK safety rules emanating from Europe that have already banned the mining of asbestos and the manufacture, processing and use of asbestos products, and protect workers from the risks of exposure to asbestos in their workplace.
The report also calls for a screening and registration programme for public buildings contaminated by asbestos as well as a road map for asbestos-free workplaces and an asbestos-free environment.
It calls for more action on asbestos waste and for people to be better informed about the risk of asbestos contamination in their homes ? at present, Poland is the only member state to have adopted an action plan for an asbestos-free country.
And it calls for victims to be properly compensated. The UK Government finally announced a compensation scheme for all newly-diagnosed victims of mesothelioma last year. The new scheme will mean that sufferers who cannot trace their former employer and/or insurer will receive compensation. However, it will not start paying out until 2014, will only cover half of victims of asbestos-related conditions and the proposed tariff system of payments will not pay out full compensation.
Britain has the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world, with someone dying from the disease every five hours. This European Parliament report should serve as a wake-up call to the Coalition Government about the need to take urgent action and stop this asbestos death toll.
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