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'All walks of life at risk' in deadly asbestos legacy
SHOCKING new figures show the extent of deaths from asbestos-related cancer and how the fatal substance is killing ever more people from all walks of life.
A Health and Safety Executive report reveals teachers, doctors, ambulance workers, farmers, and lawyers have all contracted mesothelioma as well as people employed in the traditional "at risk" occupations like shipbuilding and railway engineering.
It comes just months after a Yorkshire Post investigation revealed fears over a new wave of victims, people who have had no direct or obvious contact with asbestos, but have still developed the disease because the now-banned fibre was so widely used.
Last night Owen Tudor, senior health and safety policy officer at the Trade Union Congress, warned "no walk of life is safe". He said the figures, which put the death toll at nearly 10,000 people between 1980 and 2000, showed the deadly dust was fast becoming the main cause of death for middle-aged men.
The rising toll from mesothelioma – almost exclusively linked to asbestos exposure – includes a total of 114 teachers.
Between 1980 and 1985, 15 teachers died from the disease – 11 men and four women – but between 1996 and 2000 this increased to 43.
Last year the Yorkshire Post also highlighted the case of Huddersfield teacher Jean Whitwam, 66, who is believed to have contracted the disease at Outlane Infant School. It is thought she was exposed as she pinned children's work to the school walls.
The statistics also put the number of accountants dying from the incurable cancer at 69 over the two decades and show that 121 farmers lost their lives.
Mick Clapham, Barnsley West and Penistone Labour MP, and former head of industrial relations for the National Union of Mineworkers, said: "The latest figures from the HSE show that asbestos deaths are all across society and the large number of deaths show we need to look very seriously at treatments."
Mesothelioma can take between 15 and 60 years to develop after the initial exposure and so the full extent of its legacy is only now becoming clear. Sufferers are usually left with less than two years to live.
Mr Clapham said it was important to bring home to the Government the size of the problem so it could make available the resources to help sufferers. A meeting with the Department of Health has been requested.
Hope Daley, national health and safety officer at the public service union Unison, said the statistics showed what a danger asbestos was and how it was important to prevent this happening again.
Six million tonnes of asbestos were imported into Britain between 1900 and 1985 and the fibre still lurks in more than a million buildings.
Experts consider asbestos fibres to be relatively safe when they are firmly bonded or compacted within other material, but when the bonding crumbles, as can happen with abrasion or water damage, it can release fibres.
The HSE said the figures confirmed the highest risk occupations included metal plate workers such as shipyard workers and builders.
It was difficult to be exact because of the length of time it took for mesothelioma to develop – recent deaths reflected the working conditions in the 1970s and earlier decades. And usually only the victim's last job was recorded which was not necessarily when they were exposed.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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