아래 내용은 The Guardian 4월 16일자 기사입니다.
영국에서는 2017년부터 교육, 보건업계 종사자 147명이 악성중피종으로 사망했는데, 학교와 병원 건축물의 석면자재가 원인이므로 예산투입을 통한 정비가 필요하다는 내용입니다.
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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.
Among the 53 healthcare professionals to have died, 36 were nurses or midwives, two were therapists and 15 were classed as “medical professionals” which includes a range of professions, such as doctors, psychologists and radiographers.
The government is already under pressure from Labour and other parties to release secret data relating to the state of school buildings. The Observer revealed last year that internal government documents suggested some school buildings were a “risk to life” due to their disrepair.
It follows a decision by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) last year to launch a programme of inspections across Great Britain into how schools are managing the risks from asbestos. Attempts are being made by scientists to launch studies into the ongoing effects of asbestos on teachers and students. Statisticians have detected a rate of mesothelioma deaths that “borders on statistical significance” among teachers born between 1955 and 1974. Unions are planning to work with Professor Julian Peto, who has studied the issue for many years.
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‘The tragic cost of under-investment’: asbestos blamed for 150 deaths of school and hospital workers in England
