by TRACY MOORE

THE BARBADOS UNION OF TEACHERS (BUT) will be armed with medical records and the findings of three environmental studies at today's Social Partners meeting on the Louis Lynch School and its environs.

President Karen Best said after a meeting yesterday with several teachers, that she was given the go-ahead to use medical records of former Louis Lynch Secondary School teachers collected in 2006 to strengthen its position.

The Social Partners meeting is headed by Prime Minister Owen Arthur and include education officials and the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados who will determine the precise action to be taken on behalf of the teachers and students of the school and the possibility of environmental health threats on other businesses and residents.

Decision

"We are hoping that that meeting [today] will lead to a decision on our recommendations that will be going forward to the full Social Partners which is chaired by Arthur.

"The chairman of the sub-committee, Reginald Farley, said the school would be closed. However, the BUT position is, yes, the school will be closed but what will happen thereafter and where do we go from there?

"You have people who have been affected and we are looking at how Government can support these people in terms of further testing," said Best.

The BUT, she said, will be asking the Social Partners to agree to, among other things, a survey done with all the people who have gone to school or worked at Louis Lynch to find out any similarities in illnesses.

Meanwhile, one recommendation in the report from the PAHO-WHO Collaborating Centre of the Laval University team noted:

"Notwithstanding the findings and conclusions about the various health problems occurring at [the school] we question whether it is legitimate on a public health standpoint, to locate a school in the surroundings of an industrial area."

Sick teachers

Best said there were cases where teachers had ovarian cancer, upper respiratory tract infection, chronic fatigue, severe migraines and at least three deaths.

Other BUT recommendations that will be put to the Social Partners will include:

* establish a national chemical registry where all chemicals used in industrial plants can be logged and traced;

* the Louis Lynch Secondary School should not be reopened at the Whitepark location;

* Government and other employees need to respond seriously and with expedience to reports from employees about unhealthy work places and buildings; and

* schools should not be places in commercial areas, neither should commercial areas be allowed to develop around schools."