'Get rid of school asbestos'

Yorkshire Evening Post 12th April 2008, reported that children at a Leeds primary school are sitting on toilet seats made from asbestos.

The revelation came during an inquest into the death of Gordon Gomersall, a former teacher from the school, who developed the fatal condition mesothelioma last summer. The cancer is caused by inhaling particles of asbestos which can stay dormant in a victim's lungs for decades before a tumour is triggered.

Now his widow is calling for asbestos to be removed from all city schools.

A letter from Leeds City Council read out to Leeds Coroner's Court said that some asbestos removal at Templenewsam Halton Primary School, where Mr Gomersall taught for 20 years, took place in the late 1970s. But a safety survey in June 2005 said there was still asbestos in the school built in 1944 including toilet seats, cisterns, ceiling and floor tiles. These were deemed 'low risk' and not removed but abestos found in the boiler house and caretaker's store were a 'medium risk' and the areas cleaned.

Today the widow of Mr Gomersall, who died just two months after he was diagnosed with a tumour in his chest last July, called for asbestos to be removed from all schools in the city.

Barbara Gomersall, 72, from Crossgates, told the YEP: "If such a miniscule particle of asbestos is so dangerous and can lie 40 years or more before activating and causing such a horrendous death, surely it's time that all this so-called low risk asbestos is completely eradicated."

To read the full account, please click on the link below:
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/39Get-rid-of-school-asbestos39.3975694.jp