Labor group seeks total asbestos ban in schools

THE Associated Labor Union (ALU) called upon the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and all state, private schools and universities nationwide to ban the use of all wire gauzes that contains cancerous asbestos from their classrooms and laboratories.

“The campaign to responsibly ban and phase out asbestos in the Philippine soil is calling on the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, all private and state schools, universities, and colleges nationwide to ban and dispose asbestos containing wire gauzes from their chemistry and biology classrooms and laboratories,” said Alan Tanjusay, ALU Policy Advocay and Campaign Officer.

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 three per cent chrysotile asbestos in a testing and analysis conducted by a private laboratory using polarized light and dispersion staining technique.

He said wire gauzes are used to separate the beaker and flask from direct heat of the flame.

“We cannot see the dust because each dust is invisible to the naked eyes— it is five thousand times smaller than a piece of hair in diameter,” Tanjusay said. “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.”

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.

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

Records from DepEd showed 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 thru letters to the DepEd, ChEd, CEAP, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Philippine Federation of Chemistry Societies, PACU, and PASUC. –Sammy Martin, Manila Times