Essex children sent home after symptoms recur

Toxic gas fear closes school
by Jonathan Petre PARENTS of pupils at a Catholic school in Essex have accused the County Council of incompetence after the closure of the school buildings for at least eight months to allow a mysterious ailment to be investigated.
The illness, which has affected more than a third of the students and staff at the St Thomas More School, in Southend, has appeared since urea formaldehyde foam was pumped into the wall cavities in February as part of an insulation programme being carried out by Essex County Council.
Mr. Peter Roper, chairman of the parents' association, said that parents were "bitter, frustrated and angry."
"We had no trouble until this stuff was put in, and since then it has all been disruptive. The school has already had four closures after the so-called experts had assured us that everything was back to normal," he said.
Tests recently completed by the Government Health and Safety Executive revealed that the level of the toxic formaldehyde gas was below the recommended safety limit, but staff and pupils have still been exhibiting all the symptoms, such as nausea and sore eyes, often connected with high levels of gas. Mr Geoffrey Davidson, a spokesman for the Essex County Council, said this week that this was an absolutely unique case. "We have done more than 400 buildings and only come across minor problems before," he said.
Essex County Council have now decided to transfer the 600 pupils and 50 staff to other premises several miles away while investigations into the cause of the strange illness continue.
But staff and parents are angry about what they describe as a catalogue of errors made by the County Council, without which, it is claimed, the situation could have been avoided.
Mr McDonald, headmaster of St Thomas More school, said that British standard building codes of practice restricted the use of cavity foam in "systembuilt", prefabricated buildings, such as were used by the school. But, he said, the council did not even ask to see the plans before they went ahead with the insulation programme.
Even then, Mr McDonald added, the company contracted to do the work, Saxon Foam Ltd, failed to foresee the difficulties ahead, "even when foam started coming through the fissures in the walls."
A spokesman for Saxon Foam Ltd. said this week that they had conformed to the standards, even if their code of practice differed from other companies doing similar work. "We have been in business for many years and we have never met such problems. It was reasonable for us to assume that we would have no problems this time," he said.
Mr McDonald also criticised the company for failing to supply him with a "safety card" which gives details of the possible ill-effects that might be caused by the formaldehyde gas seeping into the building. As a result, he said, it took him a long time to realise the possible cause of the illness.
The spokesman for Saxon Foam Ltd. said: "We are dealing with a hysteria situation to a degree. Cavity foam has come in for all the blame for the bad maintenance of the school buildings."
The new site to which the staff and pupils are to be transferred, at a cost to the council of £140,000, is at South Church Hall. Conditions there were described as "Dickensian" by Mr Roper, who said that some pupils might experience difficulty travelling to the school which is more than three miles from the St Thomas More site.
"The interior decor leaves much to be desired. But at least we will all be together again and the boys can have a Catholic and Christian education," he said.
Mr Francis Murphy, Secretary of the Brentwood Diocesan Commission for Education, said: "It is terribly sad. The last two terms have been very disruptive. But everybody, including Essex County Council themselves, have tried to get the thing right.
"It is a situation of which there has been little experience in the past. I am quite satisfied that Essex are doing everything in their power to help."