Asbestos poses greater risks for young children

Children are more vulnerable to exposure to asbestos than adults — the younger the child the greater the risk — was the conclusion of the independent advisory Committee on Carcinogenicity (COC).

This conclusion makes it even more urgent that all asbestos is removed from schools.

Over the last two years, the COC has been examining the risk of asbestos to children and looked at two components in assessing children’s vulnerability to asbestos. One was the effect of age at exposure and life expectancy and the other a child’s intrinsic susceptibility to injury.

It concluded that the exposure of children to asbestos is likely to make them more vulnerable to developing the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma than adults who were exposed to a similar dose of asbestos dust. The COC estimated that the lifetime risk of developing mesothelioma for a five-year-old child exposed to a dose of asbestos was about 3.5 times greater than for an adult aged 25 and five times greater than for a 30-year-old adult.

It’s estimated that 75% of schools in England have some buildings containing asbestos.

www.iacoc.org.uk/statements/documents/Asbestosinschoolsstatement.pdf