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This is a unique search engine offered by France Info on its site. It lets you know, in two clicks, if the primary or nursery school in your area is affected by the presence of asbestos. This information is based on the census carried out by the journalists of the series “Vert de rage”, broadcast on France 5.
The damage caused by asbestos to the health of many workers is still fresh in people’s minds. This fiber has long been used as insulation in construction. After being classified as a carcinogen in 1970, it was only banned in France in 1997 and is still present in certain buildings, including primary and elementary schools.
A census of “difficult” schools
To find out the number of nursery and primary schools concerned by the presence of asbestos within them, the teams of the documentary series “Vert de rage”, broadcast on France 5, embarked on a gigantic census of all primary schools. and kindergartens in France. The search engine is available on the site of our colleagues from France Info.
Many “non-responses from town halls”
To carry out this painstaking work, thousands of requests have therefore been sent to the town halls of France. According to their feedback, two-thirds of the schools have no formal diagnosis of the presence or absence of asbestos within them.
Indeed, of the 15,804 existing schools on the territory, 5,505 show traces of it, 4,771 do not show any and for the rest, it is unclear. For the most part, the diagnoses have been made, but their conclusions are not accessible.
Schools, helpless in the face of the asbestos problem
The last census on the presence of asbestos in schools was carried out by the National Observatory for the Safety and Accessibility of Educational Establishments (ONS), an organization attached to National Education which no longer exists. since 2020. “Vert de rage” therefore wanted to update the data, but few town halls respond, due to a lack of knowledge on the subject, of the means to carry out work or prevention.
Asbestos, a material dangerous to health
If asbestos is also scary, it is because it has caused many deaths and still risks being responsible for deaths, according to figures given by France Info.
“Thus, a fiber visible to the naked eye can release millions of smaller fibers. There is no threshold below which breathing asbestos fibers is not dangerous, and the health consequences are now Asbestos is thought to be responsible for the deaths of 70,000 to 100,000 people between 2009 and 2050, causes between 150 and 170 cancers of the larynx and ovary each year, and, within education, 20 to 60 personnel of education declare mesothelioma, that is to say cancer of the pleura, every year. The consequences on the health of the youngest remain little known, while the diseases generally declare themselves several decades after exposure”.