Report on safety of school heaters kept secret
Report on safety of school heaters kept secret
BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENT EDITOR
May 20, 2010
The NSW government is being accused of a cover-up after refusing to release test results it admitted showed ''health effects'' from unflued gas heaters on children in public schools.
It insisted fumes from the heaters did not pose ''major health dangers''. But the Asthma Foundation of NSW attacked the government's ''vague comments'' and said the results of an unreleased study should be made public urgently in the interests of tens of thousands of students and parents.
''Existing scientific studies do not support the thesis that these heaters are safe to operate in NSW classrooms,'' said the Asthma Foundation's chief executive, Greg Smith.
The report the government is holding is understood to show significant correlation between the unflued heaters and respiratory illness in children. The heaters are banned in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, and in most developed countries, but 51,000 of them are used in NSW schools.
Draft findings from the government-commissioned report, which measured the health of students in 20 NSW schools, were presented to the NSW Education Department in March.
Some test results were emailed to researchers and public servants involved in the study, but they were followed immediately by another email asking them to delete the results.
It was not until a memo outlining the findings was considered by the NSW cabinet last week that the department quietly ordered a halt to the installation of 2500 new unflued gas heaters under the Building the Education Revolution program. The schools will now be fitted with heaters that are safer but in some cases at least twice as expensive.
The report, undertaken by the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research last winter, may be tabled in Parliament today after the upper house passed a NSW Greens motion calling for its release.
The director-general of the Education Department, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said he would not authorise the release of the report until it had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, even though the results the government had seen were enough to put the installation of new heaters on hold.
''What we had hoped was that the process of peer-review would be complete by now,'' Mr Coutts-Trotter said. The department's advice is that the heaters are safe as long as classroom doors and windows are left open, he said.
He said the results he had seen pointed to ''health effects but not major health dangers''.
The Asthma Foundation said the Woolcock study was paid for by taxpayers and the findings should be released now.
The NSW Greens MP, John Kaye, also said it should be made public. ''It is overwhelmingly in the public interest that this report is in the public domain.''
Report on safety of school heaters kept secret
BEN CUBBY ENVIRONMENT EDITOR
May 20, 2010
The NSW government is being accused of a cover-up after refusing to release test results it admitted showed ''health effects'' from unflued gas heaters on children in public schools.
It insisted fumes from the heaters did not pose ''major health dangers''. But the Asthma Foundation of NSW attacked the government's ''vague comments'' and said the results of an unreleased study should be made public urgently in the interests of tens of thousands of students and parents.
''Existing scientific studies do not support the thesis that these heaters are safe to operate in NSW classrooms,'' said the Asthma Foundation's chief executive, Greg Smith.
The report the government is holding is understood to show significant correlation between the unflued heaters and respiratory illness in children. The heaters are banned in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the ACT, and in most developed countries, but 51,000 of them are used in NSW schools.
Draft findings from the government-commissioned report, which measured the health of students in 20 NSW schools, were presented to the NSW Education Department in March.
Some test results were emailed to researchers and public servants involved in the study, but they were followed immediately by another email asking them to delete the results.
It was not until a memo outlining the findings was considered by the NSW cabinet last week that the department quietly ordered a halt to the installation of 2500 new unflued gas heaters under the Building the Education Revolution program. The schools will now be fitted with heaters that are safer but in some cases at least twice as expensive.
The report, undertaken by the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research last winter, may be tabled in Parliament today after the upper house passed a NSW Greens motion calling for its release.
The director-general of the Education Department, Michael Coutts-Trotter, said he would not authorise the release of the report until it had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, even though the results the government had seen were enough to put the installation of new heaters on hold.
''What we had hoped was that the process of peer-review would be complete by now,'' Mr Coutts-Trotter said. The department's advice is that the heaters are safe as long as classroom doors and windows are left open, he said.
He said the results he had seen pointed to ''health effects but not major health dangers''.
The Asthma Foundation said the Woolcock study was paid for by taxpayers and the findings should be released now.
The NSW Greens MP, John Kaye, also said it should be made public. ''It is overwhelmingly in the public interest that this report is in the public domain.''
