Ulsan Office of Education, Making Asbestos-Free Classrooms 'Cheokcheok'

Annual 92,000㎡ School 'Asbestos Ceiling' Removal Project
Asbestos Will Be Completely Eliminated from Ulsan Classrooms in 4 Years

The asbestos monitoring team, consisting of parents, faculty members, civic groups, and external environmental experts, is inspecting the classroom ceiling at Ulsan Dongbu Elementary School.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Hong Jeonghwan] The Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education has completed asbestos removal work from the ceilings of Dongbu Elementary School, Okdong Elementary School, and Daehyeon Middle School during this summer vacation.

Asbestos is a mineral that can be processed like fibers, is chemically stable, does not easily burn, and does not deteriorate.

Above all, it is easily obtained from nature and is inexpensive. For this reason, asbestos was once praised as a "miracle material" and a "magical material" as a building material.

However, asbestos is now called a "silent time bomb." This is because asbestos is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (definitely carcinogenic) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), under the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education's asbestos replacement work has been partially carried out during the process of replacing the old ceilings of each school.

Since 2015, the asbestos zero (0) project has been underway according to a full-scale plan. Using school vacation periods, 92,000㎡ have been removed annually. If this trend continues, by 2024, four years later, all asbestos ceilings in schools within the jurisdiction are expected to be replaced with non-asbestos Tex.

Ryu Jongdo, Director of Educational Facilities, said, "Although the number of schools removing asbestos during summer vacation decreased somewhat due to changes in the academic schedule caused by COVID-19, we are steadily working to protect students' safety and health from old hazardous environments. This year, the main budget secured 10.3 billion KRW for 17 schools, and we plan to sequentially remove asbestos from schools in the Ulsan area to achieve asbestos zero by 2024."

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