Update: Cwmcarn High School to partially re-open on Friday after asbestos alert
The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed it has begun an investigation into asbestos levels at Cwmcarn High School.
The school, which has 900 pupils, was closed until further notice on Friday October 12 after a structural report found asbestos.
NASUWT Cymru has said high levels of the substance was found when a company visited the school to carry out a survey on a boiler room.
Wales organiser Rex Phillips has said the asbestos was found in airborne particles, with two-thirds of the school “inoperable”.
The union has asked the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate and find out if correct procedures were followed.
A HSE spokesman said it was looking to whether there are grounds for a full investigation, although it was early days.
The South Wales Argus has reported that while the union supported the council’s decision to close the school suddenly on Friday, there are concerns over the correct measurement used for asbestos levels.
Mr Phillips told the newspaper that he believed the contractor which carried out the test used a test threshold of 0.0005 asbestos fibres per cubic centimetres of air. He also said Caerphilly Council told staff that when they test schools they use a higher threshold of 0.01 fibres per cubic centimetres of air.
As a result, the union has asked the HSE for clarity.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams has called on the Welsh Government to hold a ‘national audit’ of every school in Wales to check for asbestos
I do not want to cause undue alarm, however when a school of 900 pupils has had to close because asbestos was found in airborne particles, I think that people across Wales have a right to know if asbestos is a danger in their local school. Britain imported hundreds of thousands of tons of asbestos in the last century and we do not know the extent of its use in our schools nor how secure it is in school buildings.
Welsh Education Minister Leighton Andrews has asked all Welsh councils about the level of asbestos in schools.
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