THE future use of medium density fibreboard (MDF) as a craft material in Darlington schools will be debated next week.
Councillors are being asked to consider proposals from several secondary schools to reintroduce the material.
Darlington Borough Council imposed a blanket ban on the use of MDF in Design and Technology lessons in 1998.
Concern has been expressed about the health risks of working with the material, which gives off fine dust when cut.
But the council's lifelong learning scrutiny committee will meet next Monday, to decide if it will support the reintroduction of MDF in schools that can demonstrate they have adequate safety measures in place.
Geoff Pennington, the council's director of education, said schools will have to improve conditions of workshops, with effective ventilation and dust monitoring systems.
Social worker and mother Geraldine Smith has written to the council expressing a strong opinion that the ban should continue, believing MDF to be unsafe.
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