Asbestos has been used in manufacturing and building since the end of the 19th century. Manufacturers and builders used asbestos as a construction material because it is resistant to fire, heat, and electrical and chemical damage. It also absorbs sound and is very strong. It is now known that prolonged inhalation of asbestos fibres can cause serious and fatal illnesses, and the material has been banned in the UK since 1999. Ahead of Global Asbestos Awareness Week, which starts on 1 April, this briefing looks at the effects of exposure over time.

Asbestos is a killer; a stark statement perhaps, but one we can confidently make because our specialist lawyers witness every day the devastating effects of historic asbestos exposure on individuals and their families.

Asbestos exposure is responsible for approximately 2,500 deaths every year in the UK from mesothelioma. The figure is further increased when other asbestos disease deaths, such as those from asbestos-related lung cancer and asbestosis, are taken into account. However, if we use the lower figure of 2,500 deaths per year during the last ten years alone, that means asbestos exposure is responsible for at least 25,000 deaths. The majority of those deaths will be due to exposure to asbestos at work. At least 25,000 families have been left shattered and broken because of exposure to asbestos. That is wrong on every level.

Asbestos exposure at work is often considered as only affecting workers such as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and other traditional tradesmen. Some people link asbestos exposure to particular types of work such as shipbuilding or the building industry. However, the stark reality of the situation is that every type of worker could potentially be affected by asbestos diseases.

The lawyers who deal with asbestos cases at Hodge Jones & Allen are never surprised by the type of work or industry within which their clients were exposed to asbestos, as our clients who are now suffering from asbestos-related conditions worked in many different environments and occupations. We are regularly assisting office workers, shop workers, nurses, doctors and teachers, to name but a few. In fact, we are seeing fewer workers traditionally linked to asbestos exposure and more clients who did other types of work.

How employers lied about asbestos
Our asbestos disease team lawyers have between them decades of experience in dealing with asbestos claims. Over the years clients have told them some of the things employers said to them about asbestos, including:

• “Asbestos is safe.” The dangers to health of being exposed to asbestos fibres have been known for well over 100 years in UK industry and yet employers freely allowed their workers to use this dangerous material in their everyday work, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. Workers were made to feel like they were making a fuss and even received suggestions they could be easily replaced if they persisted with their questions about asbestos.
• “It’s only blue asbestos that you need to worry about.” Asbestos comes in white, brown and blue forms. Blue asbestos is regarded the most toxic of the three but all asbestos is potentially dangerous to health when the fibres are breathed in. White asbestos was the most widely used of the three – it was cheap to buy and had many different uses. Yes, blue asbestos is more toxic than white asbestos, but the fact remains that white asbestos is dangerous to health and employers knew this and yet chose to allow the exposure to their workers to continue.
• “If you only work with asbestos for a few hours a day, you need not worry.” Employers tried to convince their employees that it was safe to work with asbestos materials as long as they didn’t go over a particular limit of so many hours each day (and that limit varied from employer to employer). What employers failed to disclose to their workers is that a condition such as mesothelioma only requires minimal exposure to asbestos.
• “Drink a pint of milk after you have worked with asbestos and you will be fine.” Employees were told that if they drunk a pint of milk after working with asbestos materials, any ill effects that may occur would be washed away. Some employers even went so far as to provide their employees with the pint of milk before they left work for the day. We are not aware of any medical basis upon which this suggestion was made to workers. However, many of our clients drunk the milk believing it would stop asbestos-related health problems – they believed what they were being told by the employers they trusted.
• “We will send you for a chest x-ray to prove you are okay.” If an employee expressed concern about being exposed to asbestos at work, they were sometimes told they would be sent for a chest x-ray to prove all was clear. Inevitably the x-ray would come back clear but this is because it takes many years, often 10-60 years, from being exposed to asbestos to first symptoms of an asbestos related condition showing. Being sent for an x-ray a few weeks after the asbestos exposure took place is not going to show anything at all.

Asbestos diseases
There are five recognised asbestos related conditions:

• Pleural plaques.
• Pleural thickening.
• Asbestosis.
• Asbestos-related lung cancer.
• Mesothelioma.

Many people who are diagnosed with these conditions simply went to work and their employees had no regard for their safety when they should have done so. It is shameful that so many people are being diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases in the UK because of our historical use of asbestos. Employers knew asbestos was dangerous to health, and yet they willingly allowed their workers to use it so that profits could remain as high as possible. Money was put before workers’ health.

Due to the long period from being exposed to asbestos to developing an asbestos-related condition (but remember not everyone who has been exposed to asbestos will develop an asbestos-related disease) it is now, in the present, that we are seeing the devastating effects of the wrong-doing of employers so many years ago.

It is also now that employers and their insurers are being brought to account for their actions by having to pay compensation to victims of asbestos-related diseases. Shockingly, insurers will still argue and deny that the companies they insured did anything wrong.

Conclusion
Profits were made for the employers through the hard work of their workers but it is those same workers who are now paying the ultimate price with their health. Retirement years and creating family memories are being stolen away from far too many people, simply because they went to work.

Lorna Webster is a Partner at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors.

To mark Global Asbestos Awareness Week, we are offering 10% off our Asbestos Awareness course. Please click here for more details and contact us on 0333 210 1995, quoting ASBESTOS22, to redeem this offer.