ALU bans use of toxic wire gauzes in schools

Despite the assurance of the Department of Education (DepEd) that there are enough “safeguards” in schools to prevent asbestos, the Associated Labor Unions’ (ALU) Ban Asbestos Philippines has maintained that the use of all wire gauzes that contain cancerous asbestos be banned from all classrooms and laboratories.

“We called for recall and ban of asbestos containing wire gauze. I hope they (DepEd) can do beyond ensuring us (that) they exercise safety. The best DepEd can do now is take wire gauzes away from laboratories, chemistry and biology class nationwide,” Alan Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocacy and Campaign Officer, said.

Tanjusay said that “thousands of students and teachers may have been already exposed many times… This is why we called on DepEd to recall and ban these as soon as possible.”

In a statement from DepEd’s Health and Nutrition Center (HNC), it said that even if there is no law that prohibits the use of asbestos, particularly in schools, health officials in DepEd have put in place measures to prevent undue exposure.

“We have established certain regulations to ensure that schools manage existing asbestos levels and exposure,” HNC’s statement said last Friday.

The asbestos management plan requires school authorities to regularly check asbestos levels and document asbestos response actions, including location of asbestos within the school.

All schools are required to report to parent-teacher organizations once a year on the status of the school’s asbestos management plan, including any plans for asbestos removal. Any parent, teacher, or school employee has the right to review the school’s asbestos management plan.

ALU did not only raise the concern to DepEd but with Commission on Higher Education and all state, private schools and universities nationwide through a letter.

The call was made after the ALU found out the a sample of wire gauze used by all schools and professional laboratories in the Philippines contains 3 per cent Chrysotile asbestos in a testing and analysis conducted by a private laboratory using polarized light and dispersion staining technique.

“Wire gauzes are used to separate the beaker and flask from direct heat of the flame. Repeated exposure to high and direct flames, wire gauzes become fragile and crumbly. When the crumbly gauze is disturbed, first and second-hand exposure from its dust begins. We cannot see the dust because each dust is invincible to the naked eyes— it is five thousand times smaller than a piece of hair in diameter,” Tanjusay said adding: “we have to save our teachers, our children, and industry professionals who have been using wire gauzes and may have been unwittingly exposed many times over.”

Tanjusay also specifically addressed his call to the officials of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU), the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC), the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), the parent-teachers associations all over the country to respond to the call of their civic duty do something now toward ban and disposal asbestos-containing wire gauzes and prevent further exposure of the victims.

Records from DepEd show there are more than 10,000 private and public high schools with more than 190,000 teachers in 2010.

It also estimated there are more than 2 million college students in private and public colleges and universities that same year.

Tanjusay said the ALU-BWI aired the call through letters to the DepEd, CHED, CEAP, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Philippine Federation of Chemistry Societies, PACU, and PASUC.

With the ban campaign started in 2004, the ALU partners with the Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) in its advocacy campaign to ban and phase out asbestos in the country. –Jason Faustino, Daily Tribune