Unions call for law to eradicate asbestos

Unions marked Mesothelioma Action Day last month with calls for an asbestos eradication plan. The Unite general union demanded a new asbestos eradication law requiring the safe, planned removal of all asbestos that still remains across Britain, including a register of all properties which contain asbestos.

Gail Cartmail, the union’s assistant general secretary, said: “Sixteen years after asbestos was banned in the UK, exposure to asbestos, which causes the incurable disease mesothelioma, remains an ever present danger.”

Although the use of asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999, it is still present in many buildings built or refurbished before 2000 and still presents a danger to workers. The union estimates that at least 500,000 non-domestic premises and probably around a million domestic premises still contain asbestos.

GMB general union national health and safety officer John McClean said that people across the UK continue to live with the legacy of ongoing asbestos exposure. And, he said, over 75% of schools in the UK contain some asbestos.

“The removal of asbestos due to age and degradation urgently needs a full phased and funded plan,” he added. He pointed to a new TUC asbestos eradication plan which says that all asbestos should be removed from buildings by 2035.

www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/action-mesothelioma-day

www.unitetheunion.org/news/new-asbestos-eradication-law-to-cut-mesothelioma-death-toll-called-for-by-unite