Fresh concerns have been raised about the amount of asbestos remaining in dilapidated schools and hospitals, after new analysis found that almost 150 health and education workers were recorded as dying from cancer related to the material in recent years.
According to official data, there have been 147 deaths among health and education workers since 2017. Experts believe the figure is likely to be a significant underestimate because of the way someone’s profession is recorded on death certificates.
Some 94 education professionals and 53 healthcare professionals in England died of mesothelioma, according to an analysis of death certificate data recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Mesothelioma is a form of cancer usually linked to prolonged exposure to asbestos.
It comes amid growing complaints from within the NHS and among headteachers over the state of hospital and school buildings, with concerns that the budgets for both have been relentlessly squeezed since the austerity drive beginning in 2010.
The figures were supplied by the ONS after a request by the Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, who has been examining the state of school buildings. Of the 94 education professionals, 39 worked in primary and nursery schools, 21 in secondary schools and 21 in further and higher education institutions. The remaining 13 include special educational needs staff, senior education professionals and Ofsted inspectors.
