Peterborough schools helped to dispose of asbestos threat from Bunsen burner gauze mats

Huntingdon-based construction firm Mick George has pledged to visit schools in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire to help them follow instructions by the Department for Education to remove the gauze mats.

Mick George Environmental will collect, handle and dispose of the items, ensuring that the immediate threat to pupils and staff at the facilities is removed.

The collections will take place across Cambridgeshire on Monday, October 29 and in Northamptonshire the day after.

Stephen Summerfield, environmental director at Mick George Ltd, said: “The threat of asbestos is a very real one and is something that Mick George Environmental take very seriously.

“We would urge any education providers that have the potentially harmful gauze mat equipment on site not to take a chance and to let our experienced team collect them safely.

“Over the years Mick George Ltd has successfully engaged in various safety initiatives with schools, and this is just an extension of those partnerships already formed.

“We are keen to do what we can to relieve the severity of this situation.”

Any education providers that wish to request a collection should register as soon as possible on the Mick George website at www.mickgeorge.co.uk/asbestos-school-collection.

Collections will cost £1 per gauze mat with Mick George donating proceeds to Mesothelioma UK - a national specialist resource centre specifically for asbestos-related cancer.