Kingswood School in Bath has been fined £50,000 after a number of employees, pupils and two other children were exposed to radioactive gas.
Kingswood School on Lansdown Road in Bath | Image © Google 2023
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that five pupils at the private boarding school, on Lansdown Road, were exposed to levels of radioactive radon gas almost 8 times the legal limit.
Two other children, who were not pupils at the school, were exposed to levels of radon gas almost 14 times the legal limit.
Two employees were exposed to radioactive radon gas three-quarters of the legal limit.
The radioactive gas radon is a hazard in many homes and workplaces and breathing in radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the UK, resulting in over 1,000 fatal cancers per year.
Radon is a colourless, odourless, radioactive gas that occurs in rocks and soils, some building materials and water.
Radon can seep out of the ground and build up in houses and indoor workplaces like schools.
The significant exposures to the gas at the private school occurred in 2019.
The two employees and their two children were exposed to elevated radon gas levels as a result of working and living at the school.
The five overexposed pupils studied and lived at the school during this time.
An investigation by the HSE found that the school knew they had a radon problem as far back as 2007, when they carried out monitoring and installed some remediation to reduce radon levels.
However, from 2010 to 2018 the school carried out no subsequent radon monitoring and had no systems in place to ensure radon control measures were adequate.
Only following intervention in 2018 by the Health and Safety Executive did the school find out about their previous radon problem, and further radon monitoring and remediation was carried out to reduce radon levels.
Kingswood School Trustees Limited pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay £19,222 costs at a hearing at Taunton Magistrates’ Court on 19th July 2023.
After the hearing, HSE Principal Specialist Inspector (Radiation) Stewart Robertson, said: “The fine imposed on Kingswood School Trustees Limited should underline to everyone in the education sector that the courts, and HSE, take a failure to follow the regulations extremely seriously.”
“We will not hesitate to take action against companies, including schools, who do not do all that they should to keep people safe.
“Every workplace needs to consider radon as a risk to its employees and others.”
A spokesperson for Kingswood School said: “While the overwhelming majority of our school has radon levels that are similar to those across the rest of Bath, because of our location, we have a small area of our school where radon levels can exceed the minimum standards.
“To address this, in 2010 a number of measures were installed in a small number of areas to mitigate the risk of higher than average radon levels.
“Regrettably, however, after the installation of these devices, the school did not adequately monitor and record radon levels between 2010 and 2019.
“As a result of this, the courts has fined the school £50,000. We wholly accept this ruling and, at the court hearing, the judge acknowledged the genuine remorse shown by Kingswood in response to these historic failings.
“It is important to note that both the prosecution and the judge accepted that the risk of harm from this failure was low.
“We are sorry that we have fallen short in the management of this important element. Over the last four years we have already made many additional changes to ensure that our radon mitigation, monitoring and recording far exceeds recommended standards.
“We will continue to work with leading experts in the field to provide additional expertise and assurance.”
