‘CLASSROOMS ARE KILLING PEOPLE’
Terminally ill former teacher who was exposed to asbestos warns...
ADYING teacher has issued a chilling warning to colleagues from the hospice bed where he is spending his final days after being exposed to deadly asbestos.
Geoffrey Lee, 72, from Chepstow, said “classrooms are killing people” after he developed mesothelioma – an aggressive cancer that attacks the lungs and is linked to the building material.
He was unknowingly being exposed to blue asbestos, the most lethal kind, every day for 10 years while working at what was then called the Newport College of Further Education in Nash Road, Newport.
But the committed teacher was completely unaware he was breathing in deadly particles at work until years later, when he visited a doctor with a pain in his right side and chest problems.
What medics originally said was a pulled muscle turned out to be something much more sinister and Geoffrey was given the devastating news that he has multiple lung tumours in February 2016, at the age of 70.
He said: “When I initially went to the doctors with a pain in my right side he told me there was nothing to worry about as it was likely to be a pulled muscle.
“I was really fit for my age and I was used to walking for around 15 miles a day.
“I never for a second thought the job I loved and dedicated my life to could give me a life-limiting disease.
“After three years of endless doctors and hospital investigations the news that I had tumours in my lungs and mesothelioma left my wife and I dumbfounded. “It was such a shock. “It’s such an unfair illness that just shouldn’t have happened. It’s incredibly debilitating and utterly sad.”
Geoffrey, who taught more than 2,000 pupils over a 38-year period between 1967 and 2006, said the only time he remembers being alerted to the risks of asbestos was during a school meeting in the 1980s.
There are three main types asbestos – white, blue and brown.
Blue asbestos is harder and more brittle than other types and breaks of easily, releasing dangerous needlelike fibres that are easily inhaled.
Before this time staff had been reassured the dust, which was rife in the classroom every day, posed no health risk.
He thought no more about it after his classroom was stripped of the substance.
Now the dad of two is in St David’s Hospice in Newport.
Speaking about living with the disease, he said: “I would be bent over like a banana for the first 30 minutes of the day while I waited for the pain meds to kick in, and without my wife, Theresa, I would have really struggled day to day.
“Before I came into the hospice she would encourage me to get out and about and really try and make the most of each day.
“I also seriously wonder if the teachers who have passed away from lung cancer already actually died due to the blue asbestos.”
Geoffrey received a six-figure settlement in July 2017 after seeking help from industrial disease specialist lawyer John Browne, from Slater and Gordon.
The case was brought against Newport City Council and Coleg Gwent (as it is now known) and Gwent Tertiary College.
There are just over 2,100 people diagnosed with mesothelioma in the UK each year, with about five times as many cases in men as in women, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
He said: “Since I have been diagnosed some of my ex-colleagues have been for X-rays to check their lungs.
“I am really concerned for all my past pupils as the implications are huge.
“The number of teachers that have passed away because of this awful condition is just tremendous.
“Classrooms across the UK have been killing people. I want others who may have been at risk to understand the signs and push for help from doctors.
“My son-in-law, Andrew, 38, also works as a teacher and I said to him, ‘For God’s sake, make sure there are no breaks in the plasterboards in your classrooms.’
“I know as long as it’s sealed it’s safe, but when it’s not it could change your life.
“In the building we had at the college there was continual movement in the roof due to changes of temperature which caused the particles and dust to be moved around all the time.”
Mr Browne said: “Mesothelioma is a truly awful condition that has blighted Geoffrey’s life and threatens to end so many more in the UK prematurely.
“The dangers of this substance have been known since before the turn of the century, yet it appears this knowledge was ignored and asbestos was used freely in the Nash Road premises, as in so many other school buildings across the country, essentially exposing so many during their education and career.”
Geoffrey added: “After I retired from teaching I continued to do a small amount of installation work and inspecting work. Whenever I visited the wholesalers I would come across ex-pupils of mine who had gone from my classroom as an apprentice and gone on to set up their own successful businesses.
“It’s very satisfying to see how well they are doing now.
“No horrendous illness can tarnish that.”
Newport council was contacted for comment.