School heaters to be checked after gas scare
Dec 1 2006 By The Journal
Education bosses have been ordered to review heating systems in schools after an incident which saw children and staff treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
More than 150 pupils at Crookhill Primary in Ryton, Gateshead, were evacuated last month after 25 children, a teacher and a teaching assistant were taken to hospital complaining of nausea and drowsiness.
An Health and Safety Executive investigation pinpointed a leaky gas boiler as the probable cause of a carbon monoxide leak.
Now the HSE has told the council to carry out a full review into its gas fired appliances in other schools, though no similar problems have as yet been identified.
Pam Waldron, head of operations for the HSE in the North-East said: "As part of its investigation into the carbon monoxide incident at Crookhill Primary School, Gateshead, the HSE has required Gateshead Council to carry out a full review of its arrangements for the maintenance of gas fired appliances. This has been formalised by the issue of an Improvement Notice requiring the review to be completed within three months."
None of the pupils or staff at Crookhill, which was closed for four days, suffered any lasting damage to their health although two were kept in hospital overnight.
Gateshead Council's strategic director of legal services Maureen Kesteven said: "The health and safety of pupils and staff is our prime concern and we have taken precautionary measures to conduct a programme of inspections and tests in schools and other council buildings with similar heating installations.
"No significant concerns have been identified to date. We are also carrying out a full review of our arrangements for the maintenance of gas-fired appliances."
Meanwhile a new survey has revealed that almost half of British households have taken measures to protect their families from carbon monoxide, since the school scare, and other recent high profile cases.
Some 49% have had their boilers or gas appliances serviced or bought carbon monoxide detectors since tragedies such as the deaths of two children in Corfu and the Gateshead school scare, according to a YouGov survey of 1,950 people.
