Last updated at 16:18, Monday, 20 April 2009

WORRIED parents have contacted the council after discovering their children had been playing with asbestos.

FEARS: Niamh Devlin, Emily Silver and Jacob Bibby with fragments of the asbestos sheeting they found near Channelside

Julie Silver was horrified to find asbestos sheeting had been left on Walney, where her children play.

Mrs Silver, of Mikasa Street said: “My kids were playing out and I don’t let them play near Channelside, so they were on the grassy area on Empress Drive.

“I found out that young lads had been smashing this asbestos on the channel and it was corrugated asbestos roofing.”

Mrs Silver showed the sheeting to a neighbour, who confirmed it wasasbestos.

She said: “I rang the council and told them, and then went back down and saw some men pulling some of the sheeting off a van.

“I asked them what they were doing and they said they used it as crab mats.

“It really upset me that my kids had been playing with it.

“It is so dangerous for everyone living nearby.”

Gary Ormondroyd, chief environmental health officer at Barrow Borough Council, said asbestos sheeting should not be used as crab mats.

Mr Ormondroyd said: “There is still a lot of asbestos cement material in use in the community providing facilities like rainwater gutters and pipes, so it isn’t illegal to have this material in your possession.

“The potential hazard arises from how you handle it. My advice to the chaps using it as crab mats would be not to use it for this purpose as the material is potentially hazardous.”

Mrs Silver added: “They should be doing something about it to make sure people don’t use it for this purpose.”

First published at 11:39, Monday, 20 April 2009
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk