Safety of windows in school buildings

School buildings contain a large number of glazed windows, doors, walls and other more or less exposed surfaces.

What can be done about it? How can the occupants be safeguarded and what safety measures should be taken, considering that young pupils pose a greater behavioural hazard?

The main way to tackle the problem correctly is to consider schools equated to workplaces.

To this should be added special requirements connected with the school environment in terms of prevention and safety, which restrict work for ensuring compliance by places of education and training of every order and degree.

In establishing the minimum safety limits in work environments, Italian law 626/94 states that the safety of glazed surfaces in public and private workplaces is a mandatory legal requirement.

In all school buildings, therefore, glazed surfaces must be compliant in order to guarantee the students’ safety.

Ministerial Circular no. 119 states that headmasters of schools and other places of education are to be identified as “employers”. Therefore, all headmasters and rectors, like chairmen of the boards of conservatoires and academies, have the duties and responsibilities specified in the safety standards.

It follows that not only teachers, professors, assistants, caretakers, auxiliary staff and other personnel, but also the students are equated with workers.

They use equipment, machines and work tools in general (technical equipment, video terminals, gym equipment, etc.), they attend laboratories and may be exposed to chemical, physical and biological agents.

 

Ministerial Circular no. 119 – Protocol no. D11/1646 - Rome, 29 April 1999

This regulation covering the application of safety standards in workplaces, schools and training institutions¸ enacted by Ministerial Decree no. 382 of 29 September 1998 (published in the Official Gazette on 4 November 1998), ratifies the obligation to ensure that schools comply with the applicable European provisions.

Download Ministerial Circular 119 (.pdf format).

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