Most of us think that schools are one of the safest places around, besides our homes. We also think that people attached to schools are not prone to environmental hazards as people in other places, say a factory! What a wrong idea! How many of us are aware that the students, teachers, and other staff members of many schools are vulnerable to a potential health risk due to asbestos? Thus, in many countries the use of asbestos is banned within the school environment by Laws and Acts.

Unfortunately, most schools hardly comply with these rules. This violation can have an extremely frightening effect on the students’, teachers’ and staff’s health. The school authorities are required to manage the asbestos exposure and levels within their school premises frequently, and safe removal of any damaged asbestos material from the school premises is a must.

Where Asbestos Can Be Found in Schools

The resources normally used for building purposes, for example floor and ceiling tiles, pipe wraps, roof shingles, etc and many normal school equipment (supports of the blackboards, tabletops etc) have products containing asbestos in them. In case these materials are damaged in any way, there is every possibility of harmful asbestos fibers entering the classrooms, halls, and offices of the school.

Tiny asbestos fibers, when inhaled by people, settle in the lungs and can be one of the main causes of fatal health conditions. Even a brief exposure to asbestos at schools can have serious health implications. Some people insist that the low and brief level of exposure to asbestos within the classrooms cannot do much harm. They seem to forget that a child stays there at least for a span of 10 years, and the teachers and school staff spend 30 to 40 years in a school. Thus, the cumulative asbestos intake becomes quite high.

Deadly ailments like asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma can be the ultimate end of many such victims.

What Is Mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma, a rare kind of cancer, affects the thin membrane of the heart, chest, lungs, and abdomen. Asbestos has been detected as the prime cause of mesothelioma. The latency phase of mesothelioma can be anywhere from 10 – 50 years. Thus, when it finally does show its symptoms in an earlier-affected child, teacher, or school staff, it is in its advanced stage and it is also too late to do something. Unfortunately, this leads to the fact that the survival period of any mesothelioma patient after diagnosis is barely a year.

So, if you are in any way connected to a school, or have dear ones whose jobs are school related, it now becomes your duty to see that the school management does everything to adhere to the laws to protect these people from any asbestos hazards and diseases like mesothelioma.