An expert in oncology says that a campaign to eliminate asbestos from schools could cause more deaths | News from the United Kingdom

By Gerard Tubb, North Correspondent of England

An oncology expert said that a campaign to remove asbestos from all schools in the UK was not necessary and could cause more deaths.

Unions want the government to spend billions of dollars to eliminate asbestos from schools, echoing the 2015 report of MPs calling for the removal of asbestos from all workplaces.

But Professor Julian Peto, a British expert on asbestos cancer, told Sky News that much of the most dangerous asbestos has already been removed and that it is not advisable to eliminate the rest because it would release more fiber.

"It's not clear to me that the exposures are high enough," he said.

"And in particular, it's not clear to me that doing anything about it does not increase the risk."

Asbestos was used for insulation and fire protection, but was banned in 1999 because it can cause various diseases decades after being breathed, including mesothelioma, a deadly lung cancer.

Professor Peto, chair of epidemiology at Cancer Research UK at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and at the Institute of Cancer, says the risk of dying from mesothelioma depends on your date of birth and the fact whether you work inside or outside.

According to badysis of lung tissue samples, Professor Peto said that the total environmental exposure to asbestos fibers in the UK had been multiplied by at least a hundred since the 1950s, year when she was so high that it should kill one in every hundred men in the UK. between 1938 and 1947.

Retired teachers are thought to die of the disease at a rate about five times higher than their contemporaries who worked outside.

He estimates that today 's children are 10 times less exposed to asbestos risk than 50 years ago, which means that 20 to 30 children will breathe the fibers of their body. asbestos this year, which would kill them in old age.

Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health called for the accelerated elimination of all asbestos from all workplaces in Britain.

Unions representing school workers have formed a joint committee on asbestos that asks the government to fund the gradual withdrawal of all school asbestos.

President John McClean questions Professor Peto's findings: "There is no central database on the location of asbestos and its condition, so what does it presume?"

The Health and Safety Executive has stated that the vast majority of schools in England abide by the laws that require them to remove asbestos, at risk of being damaged, and manage the rest in situ.