School asbestos a death sentence

ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post

A LOT TO LIVE FOR: Peter Kohing says he is not giving in easily to the cancer he has from inhaling asbestos fibres while he was a teacher.

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A retired Wellington principal who has terminal cancer after inhaling asbestos fibres at two schools he worked at is pleading for schools to be made asbestos-free.

Peter Kohing also wants teachers and pupils who were at South Wellington Intermediate in 1982 to be aware they could have inhaled asbestos fibres. He is concerned there are others who could end up in his situation.

The 71-year-old has mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer. This time last year he was given a year to live, but he is ignoring the doctor's prognosis.

"I will prove the doctors wrong. I've got too much to live for and don't plan to go anywhere for a while. Some people would probably just give up, but there's no way I am thinking about doing that."

One asbestos exposure came when he was working at a school near Napier. For a while it was his job to start the generator in a dusty room full of asbestos-lagged hot-water pipes.

But it is the asbestos exposure at South Wellington Intermediate he remembers most. Workmen came to remove corrugated asbestos roofing during one of the hottest weeks of the year, he said. Mr Kohing, then a teacher, was asked to go round the classrooms to make sure the windows were kept closed. But after he left they were opened again.

"These guys were stripping off the asbestos roofing from two storeys up and throwing it down into the trucks and dumper bin. There was dust blowing all over the place.

"Even when the windows were closed, the cleaners were cleaning dust off the ledges inside the classes. It was still coming through the cracks."

When he found out about the cancer, he was eight years into his retirement and enjoying life. He arrived home from a holiday in Hawaii in January 2008 with his wife, Audrey, feeling tired and sick.

He went to see his doctor who put him on antibiotics and painkillers. But the alarm bells soon started ringing. Five X-rays and three biopsies later he received the bad news.

ACC has accepted Mr Kohing's claim for work-related exposure to asbestos and he was given a $120,000 payout – equivalent to one year's salary as a principal.

"It is a very small amount considering what I have gone through. I don't want people to panic, but I just want others who were at the school then to be aware of what the asbestos did."

He is feeling "pretty good" at present but said the treatment had punished his body.

"Each time I have chemotherapy it's hammered the hell out of my body. But if that's what I have to do to beat this, then I will keep doing it."

He has home help and takes morphine for the pain.

Good friend Bob Waters, 68, who trained as a teacher with Mr Kohing and taught at some of the same schools, is also worried other people may have inhaled asbestos.

"At the time, the dangers of asbestos were not really known, so people probably didn't worry about it. If anyone has concerns, they need to go to their doctor."

Education Ministry spokeswoman Kim Shannon said a nationwide school asbestos survey was done in the mid-1980s. Any exposed hazardous asbestos was removed.

"Schools are responsible for ensuring their buildings and grounds are free of hazards, including potentially unsafe asbestos."

Financial support is available to schools to remove asbestos.

- © Fairfax NZ News