Deis school calls for more information about sanitiser recall
The Department of Education said that the supplier of Virapro should be in contact with schools directly to arrange for collection of all stocks. File picture: Leah Farrell/Rollingnews.ie
A Deis primary school in Limerick city affected by the withdrawal of potentially dangerous hand sanitiser from schools has called for more information about the recall.
St Mary's National School at King's Island, Limerick city, is one of the schools that was using Virapro hand sanitiser, now recalled as it is believed to be potentially dangerous. A review of all biocidal products used in schools is expected to be completed shortly.
Teachers at St Mary's learned of the problem with the hand sanitiser early on Friday morning, a few hours before pupils were due to start arriving at school in their Halloween costumes.
Following a massive effort by staff, the school was able to remain open. It is now waiting for its stock of the defective products to be collected and disposed of after staff spent Friday morning gathering up classroom supplies "at the crack of dawn".
“We just want to make sure everything is above board and safe for the children, that’s our main priority,” said teacher Dervila Kelly.
“We’re all just proud we managed to get through it and go ahead with the day but there is a lot of pressure on schools at the moment. Our principal was able to go very early in the morning to pick up supplies, but not every school would have someone who could rush off at seven o'clock to do that."
Ms Kelly’s own skin was aggravated from using the hand sanitiser, she believes.
She said: “I would have noticed personally quite a difference with my own skin, as I’ve had eczema. I made very sure to use my own stuff but the day is so busy and you are in and out of the classrooms, the hall, you’re going to end up using the school one sometimes because it’s near and you want to be as safe as possible.”
She said: “I would be very worried about the children and their skin and the exposure to those chemicals so it would be nice to know that whatever is being done [to replace our sanitiser] is productive and that what’s being brought back into schools is safe.”
“Our secretary had to reach out, on top of all the other jobs she has to do, to find out that it's going to be collected. We are also going to need some time to clean out all of the hand sanitisers. I assume there’ll be a financial package but we don’t have any clarity on it because it's still at the stage where they are figuring out what to do."
In a statement, the Department of Education said that the supplier of Virapro should be in contact with schools directly to arrange for collection of all stocks.
