How ministers ignored the ’time bomb’ in the classroom

Concerns about asbestos in schools were first voiced in the 1960s yet 13,000 schools today still con

Editor’s Note: Leigh Carlisle died on 27 August as the magazine was going to press.

Leigh Carlisle is 28. Doctors and lawyers have not yet established how she was exposed to asbestos or why she is dying of mesothelioma at such a young age. The aggressive cancer often takes 20 years or more to reveal itself after exposure.