CWMCARN ASBESTOS SCHOOL: Parents worried over children's safety (From South Wales Argus)
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CWMCARN ASBESTOS SCHOOL: Parents worried over children's safety
10:09am Wednesday 17th October 2012 in News
CONCERN: Martyn Reader’s sons Finlay, 13, and Harvey, 15, working at home with fellow pupil Alex Spencer
PARENTS have contacted the Argus worried their children may have been exposed to asbestos at the school.
Rosalyn Lewis, who has two children at Cwmcarn High, said: “I am tamping that my children may have been breathing in asbestos.”
Ms Lewis said her son, who is in the school’s sixth form, told her two or three classrooms were closed off for the last few weeks for what she believed was the removal of asbestos.
She said: “I would like to know why the school was still operating while the asbestos was removed.
“There’s no way these children should have been in that school when work was taking place in a number of classrooms.”
Martyn Reader, whose sons Finlay, 13, and Harvey, 15, are pupils at Cwmcarn, said: “As a parent, my biggest concern is the not knowing. My boy is doing his exams this year and we haven’t been told what to expect, and when or if it’s going to re-open.”
Natalie Stock’s son is in year eight. She said: “It’s a shame it wasn’t found sooner, so they could’ve fixed it over the summer holidays. I don’t want any of my children going to a different school. I went there, my mother went there, and my eldest went there too.
Careful says...
9:35pm Sun 21 Oct 12
http://www.hse.gov.u
k/pubns/priced/hsg26
4.pdf. It also explains that any planned refurbishment after April 2012 requires the more highly stringent Refurbishment and Demolition Survey to be undertaken. I guess this is where the anomaly was noticed at Cwncarn. It is highly probable that Cwmcarn High School will not be the last school to be similarly impacted, as most have been constructed when ACMs (asbestos-containing materials) were commonplace, and therefore any refurbishment works will now require this more stringent survey. I, for one, will be closely watching this space with interest along with countless other parents across Wales.