THE whole "health and safety" culture is constantly derided by those who reckon we are fast moving towards a nanny state.
The tragic case of the death of former woodwork teacher Joe Gallagher shows just why every workplace has to be subject to rigorous scrutiny.
Mr Gallagher was not a coal miner or a factory engineer, where he might have expected to be exposed to dangerous dust.
Yet asbestos cancer claimed his life, killed by the dust which regularly swirled around his classroom and oblivious, at the time, to the danger it posed.
Medical knowledge grows, often at the expense of tragedies such as this.
But this is why risks should never be taken when work is taking place in older buildings – and if it means that school classrooms have been closed for months while they are made safe, then so be it.
