I remember when I was in high school, the roofs of the bike sheds and some of the roofs covering the outdoor paths were made of asbestos. That’s probably still there now.
Me and some of the kids got told to stop climbing on it by the janitor and he explained about the risks. As a dumb 14 year old, I just brushed it off, now though as a grown adult it worries me how widespread the use of it was back then and how much it is still left in public buildings
The HSE has an ongoing program to carry out checks on the management of asbestos in schools.
Its not dangerous if its in decent condition and people don’t mess with it.
It’s completely safe, until you breathed it in, then it’s 100% cancer
I was talking to our site agent only a couple of days ago and he said my classroom’s ceiling has asbestos in it which is why they won’t ever drill into it, they only use adhesive based fixings on it.
I keep saying they need to knock the building down as it’s an old piece of crap but as a school we can’t even afford to knock it down, let alone rebuild a new one.
Any building built before 2000 will have some form of asbestos in it. Its perfectly sade it not damaged & by law all commercial/industrial buildings incl schools should have annual checks/surveys carried out
I have an asbestos phobia…
Scary things:
– We breath around 1-4 asbestos fibres per minute from commercial pollution and natural presence in the air
– Talcum powder (baby powder) sometimes is contaminated with cancer causing asbestos and talcum itself is really bad for your lungs ( also found in balloons you blow up with your mouth or do NOS with :D).
– In Tuscany the tap water sometimes has 700.000 fibres per litre
– A lot of water pipes in the UK are still asbestos cement which is degrading and breaking as we speak.
– Many vintage wines used Asbestos filters to filter the wine you are drinking, yummy
– Flats you lived in could be contaminated from previous renovations where asbestos was poorly handled
– Asbestos has started being linked to some diseases that are not breathing related.
– Asbestos has been found contaminating some HUGE makeup brands in recent years
– Asbestos in bad condition is often prevalent in rental properties but the landlord don’t even bother to do asbestos surveys as they are not legally required to do so thus you are exposed and they are legally not liable as “they didn’t know it was there
– If you are drying clothes with water contaminated with asbestos (say from broken pipes) the fibres will be released in the air from your dryer 😀
– Asbestos has been found in the filters of counterfeit cigarettes.
– Asbestos contamination of cement and other imported materials from China happens and we don’t know to what extent
– Asbestos can be found in old car breaks, remember that when a nice vintage car drives past you 😉 and breaks releasing some fires
– Asbestos mismanagement happens a lot because tradesmen do not legally need a license to perform renovations and often are poorly educated on it.
– Most of the time you see a textured ceiling… probably asbestos containing.
​
Asbestos exposure is likely far more common than people realise and far too many people are getting away with relaxed regulations especially in rental properties and tradesmen with no proper training.
Silica is another thing, how often have you walked past pavement works where they guys are drilling into non-wetted cement or a truck thats filling a bed with cement debris thats not wet… yeah you are breathing that shit and it’s bad for you.
This drives me up the fucking wall.
I work in construction and often see and discuss the amounts being spent on surveys, encapsulation, and occasionally removal from sites. When I mention this to family or friends their lack of concern is amazing, cognitive dissonance and the fact the symptoms won’t be an issue for decades seems to keep people from worrying about it.
There is likely some amount within a few metres from you right now as it’s use was so widespread, and until you start disturbing things you wouldn’t know, and once you do how would you know, how do you discern it from any other building material unless you have an awareness of what you’re looking for and have the training to stop work and make the area safe by applying control measures.
There have been several cases where people with zero awareness of the dangers have been diagnosed later in life and were able to trace it back to a job they had as a teenager decades before.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of the people who have done DIY renovations on mid century to 1970s homes over the last few years being diagnosed with related cancers in a few years.
This is an excellent article, extremely well written and thoroughly covers a bunch of issues. Thanks for posting.
This could impact many of us without us ever having any knowledge of it. The recording of the data seems like an easy thing to fix.
yeah my school’s got smashed up by vandals and it was a ‘joke’ to try and flick it at people from a ruler<coughs>
>’I don’t think they care how much risk it poses to students’
There, fixed it
It wasn’t long ago some teachers brought up lawsuits over this. many were getting sick due to this
I work in a school and we still have some in places. We have to check a register before drilling any holes etc.
I dunno, I (mercifully) briefly worked in asbestos removal, about half of the work came from schools and hospitals.
I certainly wouldn’t say it’s being ignored as an issue.
I would say they don’t care about the risk it poses to students is a more accurate wording.
I used to work at a university and was involved in redevelopment of classroom blocks.
The asbestos ‘register’, if you want to call it that, was a joke, it’s not taken seriously. Even by the H&S people on these sites.
In 2000s I use to “remove” asbestos from buildings. Lots of people just coverd it up. I mean literally wrap it in plastic and have someone plaster over it. Completely illegal but my company done it for Starbucks argyle st Glasgow as well as Robert Gordon school in Aberdeen. Thos were just the two I personally seen. Place is still riddled with asbestos but now the council and future contractors believe it’s gone. . .I was told it was a common occurrence I uk at the time but I didn’t stick the job long because. .. well asbestos
The title is pretty clickbaity. Having worked in asbestos buildings before, the material is safe as long as its undisturbed, so as long as no ones throwing a ball at the roof or giving piggyback to move the tiles, then there’s no threat
We were using asbestos tiles during DT (electrical.) Fun.
Spare a thought for us working in construction who come across it all the time. Project managers etc don’t give a shit about us
The prevalence of Asbestos in schools, homes and hospitals is nothing short of a scandal.
21 comments
I remember when I was in high school, the roofs of the bike sheds and some of the roofs covering the outdoor paths were made of asbestos. That’s probably still there now.
Me and some of the kids got told to stop climbing on it by the janitor and he explained about the risks. As a dumb 14 year old, I just brushed it off, now though as a grown adult it worries me how widespread the use of it was back then and how much it is still left in public buildings
The HSE has an ongoing program to carry out checks on the management of asbestos in schools.
https://schoolsweek.co.uk/health-and-safety-watchdog-to-inspect-schools-asbestos-management/
Its not dangerous if its in decent condition and people don’t mess with it.
It’s completely safe, until you breathed it in, then it’s 100% cancer
I was talking to our site agent only a couple of days ago and he said my classroom’s ceiling has asbestos in it which is why they won’t ever drill into it, they only use adhesive based fixings on it.
I keep saying they need to knock the building down as it’s an old piece of crap but as a school we can’t even afford to knock it down, let alone rebuild a new one.
Any building built before 2000 will have some form of asbestos in it. Its perfectly sade it not damaged & by law all commercial/industrial buildings incl schools should have annual checks/surveys carried out
I have an asbestos phobia…
Scary things:
– We breath around 1-4 asbestos fibres per minute from commercial pollution and natural presence in the air
– Talcum powder (baby powder) sometimes is contaminated with cancer causing asbestos and talcum itself is really bad for your lungs ( also found in balloons you blow up with your mouth or do NOS with :D).
– In Tuscany the tap water sometimes has 700.000 fibres per litre
– A lot of water pipes in the UK are still asbestos cement which is degrading and breaking as we speak.
– Many vintage wines used Asbestos filters to filter the wine you are drinking, yummy
– Flats you lived in could be contaminated from previous renovations where asbestos was poorly handled
– Asbestos has started being linked to some diseases that are not breathing related.
– Asbestos has been found contaminating some HUGE makeup brands in recent years
– Asbestos in bad condition is often prevalent in rental properties but the landlord don’t even bother to do asbestos surveys as they are not legally required to do so thus you are exposed and they are legally not liable as “they didn’t know it was there
– If you are drying clothes with water contaminated with asbestos (say from broken pipes) the fibres will be released in the air from your dryer 😀
– Asbestos has been found in the filters of counterfeit cigarettes.
– Asbestos contamination of cement and other imported materials from China happens and we don’t know to what extent
– Asbestos can be found in old car breaks, remember that when a nice vintage car drives past you 😉 and breaks releasing some fires
– Asbestos mismanagement happens a lot because tradesmen do not legally need a license to perform renovations and often are poorly educated on it.
– Most of the time you see a textured ceiling… probably asbestos containing.
​
Asbestos exposure is likely far more common than people realise and far too many people are getting away with relaxed regulations especially in rental properties and tradesmen with no proper training.
Silica is another thing, how often have you walked past pavement works where they guys are drilling into non-wetted cement or a truck thats filling a bed with cement debris thats not wet… yeah you are breathing that shit and it’s bad for you.
This drives me up the fucking wall.
I work in construction and often see and discuss the amounts being spent on surveys, encapsulation, and occasionally removal from sites. When I mention this to family or friends their lack of concern is amazing, cognitive dissonance and the fact the symptoms won’t be an issue for decades seems to keep people from worrying about it.
There is likely some amount within a few metres from you right now as it’s use was so widespread, and until you start disturbing things you wouldn’t know, and once you do how would you know, how do you discern it from any other building material unless you have an awareness of what you’re looking for and have the training to stop work and make the area safe by applying control measures.
There have been several cases where people with zero awareness of the dangers have been diagnosed later in life and were able to trace it back to a job they had as a teenager decades before.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of the people who have done DIY renovations on mid century to 1970s homes over the last few years being diagnosed with related cancers in a few years.
This is an excellent article, extremely well written and thoroughly covers a bunch of issues. Thanks for posting.
This could impact many of us without us ever having any knowledge of it. The recording of the data seems like an easy thing to fix.
yeah my school’s got smashed up by vandals and it was a ‘joke’ to try and flick it at people from a ruler<coughs>
>’I don’t think they care how much risk it poses to students’
There, fixed it
It wasn’t long ago some teachers brought up lawsuits over this. many were getting sick due to this
I work in a school and we still have some in places. We have to check a register before drilling any holes etc.
I dunno, I (mercifully) briefly worked in asbestos removal, about half of the work came from schools and hospitals.
I certainly wouldn’t say it’s being ignored as an issue.
I would say they don’t care about the risk it poses to students is a more accurate wording.
I used to work at a university and was involved in redevelopment of classroom blocks.
The asbestos ‘register’, if you want to call it that, was a joke, it’s not taken seriously. Even by the H&S people on these sites.
In 2000s I use to “remove” asbestos from buildings. Lots of people just coverd it up. I mean literally wrap it in plastic and have someone plaster over it. Completely illegal but my company done it for Starbucks argyle st Glasgow as well as Robert Gordon school in Aberdeen. Thos were just the two I personally seen. Place is still riddled with asbestos but now the council and future contractors believe it’s gone. . .I was told it was a common occurrence I uk at the time but I didn’t stick the job long because. .. well asbestos
The title is pretty clickbaity. Having worked in asbestos buildings before, the material is safe as long as its undisturbed, so as long as no ones throwing a ball at the roof or giving piggyback to move the tiles, then there’s no threat
We were using asbestos tiles during DT (electrical.) Fun.
Spare a thought for us working in construction who come across it all the time. Project managers etc don’t give a shit about us
The prevalence of Asbestos in schools, homes and hospitals is nothing short of a scandal.