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Global Asbestos plc - it lies, it kills,
it robs the dead
Selling
death
It blocked a deal that would have made it more difficult to unload asbestos
on the developing world. It bought scientists and column inches in national
papers. And it is killing hundreds of thousands each year. Hazards
exposes the global asbestos industry's desperate battle for survival -
at any price.
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| DEADLY
BUSINESS New reports reveal how the global asbestos industry
has manoeuvred to rob asbestos disease victims of compensation, has
lied about the financial impact of claims on its profits and has used
a dirty tricks campaign to continue to push its deadly product. Photo:
Bill Ravanesi |
Global dirty tricks
campaign
Asbestos producer nations have blocked the
addition of chrysotile (white) asbestos to the UN list of highly dangerous
substances that cannot be exported to developing countries without their
knowledge and agreement. The blocking manoeuvre on "prior informed
consent" (PIC) listing of chrysotile at the Rotterdam convention
meeting in Geneva on 18 September 2004 was spearheaded by the Canadian
and Russian governments.
The move drew protests from campaigners, while
the European Union said it would set a negative precedent. "The failure
to list chrysotile asbestos is a bad omen for the convention, risking
serious harm by sending a signal that the convention's requirements do
not need to be taken seriously," said Clifton Curtis, director of
World Wildlife Fund's global toxics programme.
Global construction union IFBWW, which has
been at the forefront of the worldwide union ban campaign on asbestos,
expressed "profound disappointment and its determination to continue
the struggle for a global ban." Supporters of the inclusion of chrysotile
asbestos on the list are expected to keep up the pressure.
The asbestos lobby pulled off an identical
blocking move at the 2003 PIC meeting. As the procedure has no mechanism
to force signatories to play by the rules, Canada and other asbestos interests
could feasibly block listing indefinitely. However, the strategy could
totally discredit the Rotterdam Treaty, which could lead to increasing
pressure on these nations to observe the spirit of the treaty.
In September 2004, the International Social
Security Association joined international union and health organisations
in calling for a global asbestos ban.
More information see the Hazards PIC and asbestos pages
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Generations of deadly asbestos deceit
 A
generation ago, the UK asbestos industry paid for full page advertisements
in national newspapers and magazines.
A UK Asbestos Information Committee ad from the 2 September 1970
edition of Punch claimed we would be "in danger!"
withoutasbestos, warning that without this "indispensable material"
ships and buildings would be in peril from fire. In fact, fire deaths
plummeted after asbestos
lagging was banned.
Having lost the argument in the UK, the global asbestos industry
is now using the same sleazy PR techniques in developing nations.
A "special sponsored feature" in the 9 January 2004 edition
of India's Business Standard newspaper, looking deceptively
like an ordinary feature, claims a New Delhi conference convened
by Indian, Canadian and US asbestos industry bodies - including
the Canadian government-funded Asbestos Institute - "had cleared
the last fibres of doubt about the effect of chrysotile asbestos
cement on human health and environment."
Another headline in the advertorial claims: "Asbestos cement
used in India is free from all health risks"; another says
"The last fibres of doubt disappear at the International Conference."
The industry is not relying solely on propaganda, however. A report
in British Medical Journal last year said occupational health
doctors complain they are under pressure from the asbestos industry
to label patients with asbestos disease as having tuberculosis or
bronchitis (2).
A team led by Dr Tushar Kant Joshi, head of occupational medicine
at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, New Delhi says random x-ray
screening finds lung disease in about 20 per cent of asbestos-exposed
workers.
Joshi has been told on several occasions he will lose his job if
he continues to criticise the asbestos industry.
India is a major importer of asbestos, currently using around 125,000
tonnes of asbestos each year, most of this from Canada.
 The
global asbestos industry PR campaign was given a boost this year
when both the Canadian federal and Quebec provincial governments
agreed new six-figure funding for the Chrysotile Insitute, the asbestos
trade's international lobbying organisation.
Subsequently the global asbestos industry escalated its massive
advertising campaign in developing nations. Above, a poster from
a US$1.3M advertising campaign from Crisotila Brasil.
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Doctoring the facts
The Asbestos Institute has spearheaded the global asbestos industry charm
offensive - and has used dirty tricks and suspect science to further its
arguments.
A paper in the November 2003 edition of the American Journal of Industrial
Medicine (AJIM) concludes: "The Canadian asbestos mining industry
has a long history of manipulating scientific data to generate results
that support claims that their product is 'innocuous'"(3).
It adds that the industry does this by retaining its own, industry sympathetic
researchers. "Researchers complicit in this manipulation seem to
be motivated by a variety of interests, including a desire to support
an important national industry and a pre-existing ideological commitment
to support corporate interests over worker or community interests.
"Conducting industry-friendly research can also anchor an academic
career by guaranteeing the steady stream of funding necessary to stay
afloat in the 'publish or perish' environment of the university."
The report comes on the heels of a paper in the International Journal
of Occupational and Environmental Health (IJOEH) that concluded the
continued use of asbestos "is testament to the effectiveness of a
campaign, spearheaded by Canadian interests, to promote a product already
banned in many developed countries."(4).
| Deadly
message
The asbestos industry has introduced a new occupational group to
the hazards of asbestos - journalists. A 22 November 2003 Toronto
Star article by Canadian journalist Peter Gorrie reported: "The
jolt of fright came at the bottom of an information sheet sent to
reporters: 'This press release is printed on chrysotile paper'...
He added: "Why should that simple statement lead to nervous
tremors? Because chrysotile is not just any old ingredient in paper.
It's a form of asbestos. And asbestos is a convicted mass-killer,
one of the most feared substances on Earth. Over the past century,
it has caused millions of deaths, and the annual toll is still at
least 100,000."
And why would anyone go to these lengths? "The press release,
from a Montreal-based lobby group called the Asbestos Institute,
is part of an effort by the industry and the federal and Quebec
governments to rehabilitate asbestos by demonstrating it can be
used safely," Gorrie wrote.
Laurie Allen, editor of the British Asbestos Newsletter
said the beige-coloured shiny paper looked fairly innocuous and
was being promoted by the Asbestos Institute as an innovative product
suitable for archival and other uses.
In January 2004, a sample of this paper was analyzed by a UKAS-accredited
laboratory in England; it was found to have a surprisingly high
asbestos content. A second US analysis confirmed the sample was
"composed of chrysotile asbestos, cellulose and a thin layer
of calcium carbonate on one side... Chrysotile is approximately
10-15 per cent by volume and approximately 60 per cent by weight."
Allen reports the paper "would, upon tearing or rough handling
be almost certain to liberate fibres into the atmosphere."
Asbestos campaigners in Canada say they plan to refer the Asbestos
Institute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the grounds that
unsuspecting individuals could have faced potentially harmful exposures
as a result of the lobby group's irresponsible promotion.
DEADLY BUNDLE Microscope analysis shows a bundle of white asbestos
fibres in the Asbestos Institute press release paper. An analysis
found the paper to be composed of 60 per cent asbestos by weight.
Asbestos makeover reignites old battle, Toronto
Star, 22 November 2003 • International
Ban Asbestos Secretariat
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Cancer epidemic
Asbestos will inevitably claims thousands of lives in those already exposed.
Today, thousands are dying each year in the UK as a result of exposures
a working lifetime ago.
The United Kingdom is facing an epidemic of mesothelioma cancers among
workers exposed to asbestos. An editorial in the 31 January 2004 edition
of the British Medical Journal said there are now over 1,800 mesothelioma
deaths per year in Britain - more than one in 200 of all deaths in men
and almost one in 1,000 in women - and the number is still rising, with
the peak of the epidemic still to come.(5)
"For a man first exposed as a teenager, who remained in a high risk
occupation, such as insulation, throughout his working life, the lifetime
risk of mesothelioma can be as high as one in five.
"There is nothing we can do now to prevent it in workers exposed
to asbestos throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. What we can do is
recognise it early, treat it actively, and learn about best treatment
with carefully thought out studies because we will be seeing many more
mesotheliomas in the next 25 years. In the developed world alone 100,000
people alive now will die from it."
Others argue the real risk is much, much higher. Hugh Robertson, head
of health and safety at the British TUC says: "A more realistic estimate
is that within the EU alone 500,000 will die in the next 35 years, half
from mesothelioma and half from lung cancer. In Japan, an estimated 100,000
will die. If you add the Australian, Canadian and US figures then even
a million is an underestimation - and that is only for the developed countries."
For each mesothelioma case, experts estimate there will be between one
and three asbestos-related lung cancer cases.
No justice for victims
Any notion of compensation is as elusive as justice for many of the victims.
The company sent in as administrator for T&N, the asbestos giant that
opted for bankruptcy to avoid asbestos payouts to dying workers, is making
millions in fees while sufferers receive nothing. Kroll Buchler Phillips
has charged £17 million in fees to date and their solicitors have
charged £6 million.
Tony Whitston, a spokesperson for the coalition of asbestos support groups
that lobbied Kroll's UK HQ in November 2003, said "the administrators
are making a financial 'killing,' significantly reducing the fund they
are supposed to help to establish!"
The system protects hazardous employers and insurers, but routinely penalises
the victims of deadly occupational diseases.
Moira Sim, whose husband died of an asbestos-related cancer, was told
in February 2004 she has failed in her attempt to collect the £200,000
compensation awarded by a court - with interest, the award would be currently
worth about £400,000. Brian Sim was 44 when he died from mesothelioma
in 1992.
Three years later his widow Moira, from Torrance near Glasgow, won compensation
from his former employer, Don (Contractors Limited) - which went out of
business in 1987. But a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh has
ruled that an insurance firm was not liable for the pay-out.
Tomorrow's epidemic
The epidemic of asbestos disease is expected to peak in the next decade.
By then, though, the first signs of its successor, the asbestos epidemic
designed to hit developing nations should be emerging.
History is already destined to repeat itself, as the asbestos industry's
energetic sales pitch in developing nations has already ensured hundreds
of thousands have been exposed to asbestos fibres without the safety precautions
and training that might have reduced the risks.
The industry is fearful of the global asbestos campaign, which has gathered
momentum in the last decade. Those European Union countries who haven't
banned asbestos already must have bans in place by next year; Australia
banned white asbestos at the start of the year.
But the trend is not all so healthy. Even some developed nations have
increased imports of asbestos, improving the survival chances of an industry
that should have been left to die.
Latest US Commerce Department figures show that US asbestos imports have
climbed by 300 per cent over the last decade. And when the St. Louis
Post- Dispatch's Pulitzer prize winning reporter Andrew Schneider
examined Securities and Exchange Commission filings and press releases
from the five largest asbestos targets who have filed for bankruptcy,
he found most were doing rather well.
The most recent reports from Armstrong, WR Grace, Federal Mogul, Owens
Corning and US Gypsum show that with a single exception, all have increased
sales and have the same or a greater number of employees than before they
filed for protective bankruptcy, termed a "Chapter 11" filing
in US business parlance.
The supposed plight of these companies, however, has been the justification
for strong pressure for new laws which could soon create a cash-limited
compensation pot, a move personal injury lawyers say would save the companies
billions.
The US manoeuvres are already hurting UK workers - Federal Mogul owns
UK company Turner and Newall, which has frozen payouts to thousands of
dying UK asbestos victims.
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US study "shatters"
asbestos bankruptcies myth
The first-ever analysis of US federal mortality records has found
that 10,000 Americans die each year from asbestos exposure, and
projects that up to 10 times that many will die in the next decade.
More Americans die each year from cancers and other illnesses caused
by asbestos than from fires and drowning combined, according to
the March 2004 study by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund
(EWG).
It says although many Americans believe that asbestos has already
been banned and its victims have been compensated by the courts,
this is almost completely wrong.
The study reports that 30 million pounds of asbestos are used in
the US each year, with more than one million workers exposed every
year.
A new EWG website makes public decades of secret documents proving
that the corporations knew asbestos was deadly but continued to
poison their workers and the public for the sake of profits. EWG
Action Fund researchers found that fewer than two per cent of workers
exposed to asbestos have asked for help paying medical bills.
It says its research "shatters the bankruptcy myth,"
revealing companies tell the world they have been driven bankrupt
by asbestos suits but tell their shareholders their bottom lines
have not suffered.
EWG
news releases and asbestos
website
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Unions expose Australian asbestos "corporate
bastardry" and win official inquiry
Allegations that Australian building materials giant James Hardie
Industries has turned its back on tens of thousands of dying workers
are to be investigated by a high-powered official inquiry.
New South Wales state premier Bob Carr bowed in March 2004 to vigorous
union campaigning when he announced the probe into the failure of
trusts established by James Hardie to handle its asbestos-related
liabilities.
The manoeuvre was criticised by Paul Bastian of the manufacturing
union AMWU as a "sham," designed to deny compensation
to thousands of dying workers and their families. He accused the
company of an "act of corporate bastardry."
AMWU said the company knew the effects of asbestos and profited
by tens of millions of dollars from continuing production.
Unions in the state became key players in a campaign to "unmask"
the truth, and last year arranged for dozens of sufferers of asbestos
related illnesses to confront shareholders outside a meeting in
Sydney.
Workers
Online
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References
1. Rotterdam Convention prior informed consent system.
2. News round-up. Asbestos poisoning was covered up by doctors, claims
health team. BMJ,
vol.327, page 248, 2003
3. David Egilman and others. Exposing the Myth of ABC, Anything But
Chrysotile: A critique of the Canadian asbestos mining industry and McGill
University chrysotile studies, AJIM,
vol.44, issue 5, pages 540-557, 2003.
4. Laurie Kazan-Allen, The asbestos war, IJOEH, vol.9, no.3, pages
173-193, 2003. [pdf]
5. T Treasure, D Waller, S Swift and J Peto. Editorial. Radical surgery
for mesothelioma. The epidemic is still to peak and we need more research
to manage it. British
Medical Journal, volume 328, pages 237-238, 31 January 2004 •
TUC
news release • BBC
News Online
Resources
International
Ban Asbestos Secretariat
IBAS international listing of victim
support groups
UK
asbestos groups
Ban Asbestos
Canada
LATEST NEWS
Global:
French government calls for worldwide asbestos ban
France has called on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to ban
asbestos all over the world. The proposal was presented by junior employment
minister Gerard Larcher at the ILO’s annual conference in Geneva.
Risks 260, 10 June 2006
Britain:
Dockers can sue government on asbestos
A retired docker who suffers from an asbestos-related illness has welcomed
a High Court decision allowing him to sue the government for compensation.
Robert Thompson, 65, won the right to take legal action along with docker's
widow Winifred Rice.
Risks 259, 3 June 2006 • John
Pickering and Partners news release
Britain:
Government bid to speed up asbestos payouts
The government has said it wants to see swifter compensation settlements
for mesothelioma sufferers and their families. Work and pensions secretary
John Hutton said his department will work with the Association of British
Insurers, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and the Department
for Constitutional Affairs to urgently identify ways to speed up the settlement
of claims for the asbestos-related cancer.
Risks 257, 20 May 2006
Britain:
Government must act now for asbestos victim justice
A House of Lords ruling which will cut millions from compensation payouts
to asbestos cancer sufferers and their families has been condemned by
TGWU general secretary Tony Woodley, who has called for the government
to act immediately to change the law and restore compensation.
Risks 257, 20 May 2006
Britain:
School asbestos linked to another death
Another death has been linked to occupational exposure to asbestos in
a school. Victor Kirk, 66, a divorced retired caretaker from Paignton,
died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma on 6 April.
Risks 256, 13 May 2006
Britain:
Asbestos site advert ‘misleading’
The firms bidding to re-develop a former asbestos factory for housing
published a misleading advert downplaying asbestos risks, a watchdog has
ruled. After complaints from asbestos campaigners, the Advertising Standards
Authority said claims about levels of asbestos at the site were misleading,
in what is believed to be first case where ASA has been used to expose
company spin on an occupational health-related issue.
Risks 256, 13 May 2006
Britain:
Britain’s deadly waste industry kills again
A 66-year-old man has died after being hit by a bin lorry in North Tyneside,
the latest in a disastrous series of deaths blighting the industry. HSE
in March warned that there had been a massive upturn in waste industry
deaths affecting workers and members of the public, with the total for
the year up from two deaths in 2001/02 to double figures last year.
Risks 256, 13 May 2006
Global:
Asbestos and corporate greed
A group of Euro MPs has published a devastating criticism of the asbestos
industry and its continuing promotion of the worldwide asbestos trade.
‘Asbestos: The human cost of corporate greed’ was launched
by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group (GUE/NGL) ahead of
Workers’ Memorial Day, at a 27 April press conference in the European
Parliament in Brussels.
GUE/NGL
website
Britain:
Asbestos ruling will mean thousands lose out
Asbestos cancer victims have been made to pay the price for their employers’
negligence, top legal experts have said. Negligent employers will not
be liable to pay 100 per cent compensation if other culpable employers
have gone out of business and their insurers cannot be found.
Thompson
Solicitors • Irwin
Mitchell news release • Risks 255, 6
May 2006
Britain:
Lords slash asbestos payouts
Thousands of widows will not receive full compensation for their husbands'
deaths from asbestos-related cancer, Law Lords have ruled. The 3 May majority
decision will mean there will be a compensation limit in cases involving
several employers, none of whom can be blamed categorically for the onset
of the fatal illness.
Risks 255, 6 May 2006 • Barker (Respondent)
v. Corus (UK) plc (Appellants) (formerly Barker (Respondent) v. Saint
Gobain Pipelines plc (Appellants)) Murray (widow and executrix of the
estate of John Lawrence Murray (deceased)) (Respondent) v. British Shipbuilders
(Hydrodynamics) Limited (Appellants) and others and others (Appellants)
Patterson (son and executor of the estate of J Patterson (deceased)) (Respondent)
v. Smiths Dock Limited (Appellants) and others (Conjoined Appeals. Full
House of Lords judgment
Britain:
Unions warn HSE on asbestos risks
Trade unions and safety campaigners have reiterated their warning to the
Health and Safety Executive about proposed alterations to the regulations
covering asbestos work. The warning came ahead of a Construction Safety
Campaign organised march and rally in London on Workers’ Memorial
Day, 28 April, supported by construction sector unions and south-east
region TUC, SERTUC.
Risks 255, 6 May 2006
Global:
International support for asbestos campaign
Unions worldwide called for global ban on asbestos, as part of the 28
April Workers’ Memorial Day activities. The call, spearheaded by
global building and wood union federation BWI, saw action in countries
from Argentina and Burkina Faso to Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Workers’ Memorial Day events worldwide, Hazards,
29 April 2006
Britain:
Pottery work linked to asbestos cancer
A retired pottery worker has submitted a damages claim against Royal Doulton
amid allegations the former bone china giant left him with the asbestos
cancer mesothelioma. John Shenton, 72, claims 12 years spent working for
the famous pottery company - when it was Allied English Potteries - exposed
him to dust from Asbestolux material.
Risks 254, 29 April 2006
Canada:
Generations pay for asbestos trade
There has been a visible rise in the number of people in Canada who never
worked with asbestos yet are at risk of its illnesses because they were
incidentally exposed to asbestos. Many of the victims of these “bystander”
cases as dying young because were exposed to asbestos as children to contamination
on a parent’s work clothes.
Risks 253, 22 April 2006
Britain:
Widow seeks help in compensation quest
The widow of a nuclear physics researcher who died from cancer after working
with asbestos has appealed to former workmates for help with her compensation
claim. Julia Holmes is preparing a case against her husband Michael's
former employer, Rutherford Laboratories of Didcot.
Risks 253, 22 April 2006
Britain:
Son's quest for asbestos information
The son of a Doncaster man who died after being exposed to asbestos at
work is appealing to his father's former work colleagues for information
about his working conditions. Tony Richards, from Kirk Sandall, died on
19 September 2003 at the age of 60 from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.
Risks 253, 22 April 2006
Britain:
Woman mourns two asbestos deaths
A woman from Kent who lost her husband to an asbestos-related cancer has
now lost her new partner to the same disease.
Risks 253, 22 April 2006
USA:
Union takes on asbestos tests
A union-backed health and safety centre is screening US sheet metal workers
for asbestos related diseases. The nationwide screening programme is being
undertaken by the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute, which says
it takes about 20 years of exposure to asbestos before scarring of the
lungs or other problems can be detected.
Risks 251, 8 April 2006
Britain:
Asbestos misery continues
Asbestos continues to blight the lives of workers and their families,
causing deaths from cancer, breathing disorders and “natural causes”
like heart disease.
Risks 251, 8 April 2006
Britain:
Union alert prompts schools asbestos warning
Schools have been issued new official guidelines for dealing with classroom
asbestos after teaching union NUT revealed over 100 teachers have died
from contact with the substance in the past 20 years. NUT had urged HSE
to reissue the advice after one of its members, Gina Lees, died aged 51
from an asbestos cancer, one of a series of recent asbestos-related deaths
affecting school staff.
Risks 251, 8 April 2006
Britain:
Petition calls for global asbestos ban
An international petition is aiming to promote the union-driven campaign
for a global asbestos ban. The petition will be presented to key international
agencies on 28 April, International Workers’ Memorial Day.
Risks 250, 1 April 2006
Britain:
Asbestos dangers “being ignored”
A Health and Safety Executive official has said there is still a “worrying”
lack of awareness of asbestos risks. Bill McKay, principal inspector for
construction and asbestos licensing at HSE’s Newcastle office, said
he is shocked by the way materials containing dangerous asbestos fibres
are being handled.
Risks 249, 25 March 2006
India:
Moves to expand asbestos mining
The Indian government is looking to expand asbestos mining in the country.
It has asked the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) to work out necessary safeguards
to resume mining.
Risks 248, 18 March 2006
Britain:
Concern grows about school asbestos risk
The deaths of more teachers from asbestos related cancers is leading to
increased concern about exposures in schools. A Carlisle primary school
is at the centre of the latest health scare after its former headteacher
died from an asbestos-related cancer and a Devon man warned his teacher
wife died after pinning children’s artwork to asbestos tiles in
a classroom.
Risks 248, 18 March 2006
Britain:
Washing work clothes caused mum’s cancer death
A pensioner died because she used to handwash the clothes of
her son and husband which had been contaminated with asbestos. At an inquest
at Oxford Coroner's Court David Gardiner said his mother, Constance Mary
Gardiner, used to regularly wash his work clothes when he worked in the
installation industry between 1965 and 1973.
Risks 248, 18 March 2006
Britain:
Asbestos kills 57 year old
A man who had lived a healthy life died aged 57 as a result of asbestos
exposure more than 30 years ago. Allen Hurst worked stripping buildings
in his 20s and died of the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.
Risks 248, 18 March 2006
Britain:
HSE asbestos study fails to reassure unions
New HSE research into the fibre levels released when asbestos coatings
like artex are removed has been criticised by unions. TUC representatives
on the Health and Safety Commission have expressed concern, in particular
at its failure to cover sanding of artex and at the levels of asbestos
fibre found in other work.
Risks 248, 18 March 2006
Britain:
Council says safety reps make safer schools
Union safety reps and active safety committees have made Brent schools
a safer place, a council boss has said. Speaking to almost 300 delegates
at a healthy schools conference hosted jointly by Brent Council and the
school unions ATL, GMB, NASUWT, NUT, UNISON, council leader Ann John said:
“The number of trained school safety representatives and safety
committees in Brent has risen to well above the national average and that
means Brent schools are becoming safer and healthier.”
Brent
NUT news release • HSC Safety Representatives’
Charter for the education sector [pdf]
Global:
Asbestos trade renews its scare tactics
The growing pressure for a global asbestos ban is spurring a renewed public
relations push by the industry in a desperate attempt to rehabilitate
the deadly fibre. Indonesia, Zimbabwe and India have been recent targets.
Risks 247, 11 March 2006
Britain:
New attempt to rob dying asbestos victims
Bereaved relatives from around the UK, who have seen family members die
from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma, are to protest outside the House
of Lords on Monday 13 March. The protest marks the start of a legal challenge
brought by asbestos industry giant Saint Gobain Pipelines plc in a bid
to drastically reduce its asbestos compensation liabilities, with a knock-on
effect for all claimants.
Risks 247, 11 March 2006
Global:
Union protests to target asbestos trade
A global union federation is to target the asbestos trade with international
protests, in a bid to end a “global health calamity”. The
Building and Wood Workers International (BWI), a federation of construction
unions representing 12m workers worldwide, says on 28 April there will
be peaceful demonstrations and petitions at Canadian embassies and consulates
to convince the Canadian government to call a halt to its aggressive marketing
and promotion of asbestos in developing countries such as India, Zimbabwe
and Brazil.
Risks 246, 4 March 2006
Britain:
Insurers accused of abandoning asbestos victims
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has been accused of washing
its hands of pleural plaques victims. Asbestos disease victims’
lawyers say they are “extremely disappointed” ABI has refused
to support moves to put plaques cases on hold until legal appeals have
been heard in the House of Lords.
Risks 246, 4 March 2006
Britain:
Asbestos campaigners press for action
A massive campaign effort by asbestos campaigners and trades unions has
highlighted the plight of asbestos disease victims. Events were held nationwide,
with the activities to highlight rising deaths from the deadly asbestos
cancer supported by the TUC and UK unions.
Risks 246, 4 March 2006
Britain:
Asbestos cancers continue to kill
A widower who was exposed to asbestos during his job as a flooring specialist
died many years later because of his contact with the deadly fibres. At
an inquest earlier this month into the death of George Thompson, Herts
Coroner Edward Thomas recorded a verdict of death by industrial disease.
Risks 245, 25 February 2006
Britain:
Action Mesothelioma Day, 27 February
Unions and asbestos disease organisations are backing a national Action
Mesothelioma Day on 27 February. The day aims to highlight the issue of
mesothelioma - or meso - an asbestos cancer which already kills almost
2,000 people each year in the UK, or about one every five hours.
Risks 245, 25 February 2006
Britain:
Asbestos banned but still a killer
Asbestos may now be banned but the fatal fibres could still be lurking
in up to 1.5 million shops, factories and offices across the UK, the TUC
is warning. The union body is launching a major new safety drive aimed
at preventing more workers from being exposed to the killer substance
which currently claims over 4,000 lives a year.
Risks 245, 25 February 2006
France/India:
French court sinks plan to scrap 'toxic' ship
France's latest attempt to dispose of a 50-year-old warship riddled with
asbestos ran aground this week when the country's highest court suspended
plans to scrap Le Clemenceau in India.
Risks 244, 18 February 2006
Britain:
Grandfather killed by work with asbestos
A grandfather who worked most of his life for British Rail
died as a result of exposure to asbestos, an inquest has heard. Leonard
Foster, 64, of Appleby, started work cleaning steam engines as a 15-year-old,
and in a statement written before his death he said he was regularly exposed
to asbestos at work.
Risks 243, 11 February 2006
Britain:
“Dreadful” asbestos ruling will rob victims of £1bn
The Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that thousands of people suffering
from an asbestos-related condition should receive compensation. Insurance
companies, which now stand to save over £1bn, had appealed against
a judgment that pleural plaques, a scarring of the lungs, could indicate
a future risk of disease and were source of considerable stress to affected
workers.
Risks 242, 4 February 2006
Britain:
Asbestos fine “peanuts” says union
The £136,000 fines and costs bill facing an egg box company that
left its workforce exposed to deadly asbestos lagging for over a decade
has been described as “peanuts” by a union.
Risks 242, 4 February 2006
Britain:
More deaths caused by deadly asbestos
More workers have fallen victim to an early death from asbestos cancer.
Surveyor Bryn Garfield. 55, died from mesothelioma during eight years
as a buildings maintenance worker and carpenter Bryan Littlewood, 68,
died from the same cancer.
Risks 241, 28 January 2006
Global:
Asbestos trade’s lingering death
Asbestos exposure remains a massive public health challenge worldwide,
the International Labour Office (ILO) has said. “Asbestos is one
of the most, if not the most important single factor causing work-related
fatalities, and is increasingly seen as the major health policy challenge
worldwide”, said Jukka Takala, director of ILO’s Safework
programme
Risks 239, 14 January 2006
Global:
International asbestos conference, Glasgow, 27 February
An international asbestos conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on 27 February
– International Mesothelioma Day – will feature leading campaign,
medical, political and legal experts from around the world.
Risks 239, 14 January 2006
Britain:
Factory work linked to asbestos deaths
Factory workers with only incidental exposure to asbestos are concerned
they could be at increased risk of cancer after seeing colleagues succumb
to the disease.
Risks 239, 14 January 2006
Britain:
Asbestos payout slashed for smoker's widow
A court has ruled that a Devon worker was "negligent" for smoking
and has cut his widow's asbestos disease compensation payout. Beryl Badger
was told that husband Reg, a boilermaker at Devonport military docks,
had been warned about the risks of smoking.
Risks 238, 7 January 2006
Earlier news
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