UK unions call in cancer expert over fears of asbestos risk to female teachers

Article here. Excerpt:

'The threat of asbestos-related cancer to female teachers is to be examined after possible signs of an elevated risk of fatal illness.

Trade unions are to work with one of the country’s leading cancer experts on a study of the exposure women in their late-40s to mid-60s may have had to the material inside school buildings. It comes after researchers detected a possible increase in mesothelioma deaths among the group that could be statistically significant.

Official data has already shown that female former teachers born from 1935 to 1954, working when asbestos was still being installed in schools, have a 40% increased rate of mesothelioma, a cancer related to asbestos exposure that affects the lining of lungs. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reported more than 5,000 asbestos-related deaths in 2019 across the population as a whole, including from cancers like mesothelioma.'