As the administrative and fiscal court of Lisbon gave the education ministry 10 days to come clean over the asbestos threat facing the nation’s schools, environmental group Quercus has hit out at the government’s ongoing survey into the number of public buildings blighted by the cancer-causing material, saying it is being conducted by rank amateurs.
Quercus’ Carmen Lima said: “There is a total lack of understanding of what asbestos is, and the work of identification – which cannot be termed a survey of buildings – is being done by workers who have no training in this area.”
Lima’s warning comes as the clock ticks on time given to education chiefs to reveal the full extent of the public health threat hanging like the sword of Damocles over the nation’s schools.
Now, with just four days left to go, education chief Nuno Crato (pictured) has infuriated teachers’ union Fenprof by saying that the 10-day deadline referred only to him ‘replying’ to their letter, not to actually coming up with any concrete details.
The list, he says, will come when it is ready – not a minute before.
Read the full report in this week’s printed edition of the Algarve Resident, available in newsstands tomorrow (Thursday).
