Asbestos – the continuing fight

As Corries embark on a national campaign to raise awareness of asbestos disease our director Howard Bonnett asks if enough is being done to protect those exposed to asbestos in the past and if many more will suffer asbestos disease in the future.

With 34 years working in asbestos disease Howard is one of the UK’s most experienced solicitors in this field.

Asbestos disease – what is the story?

Asbestos disease has been affecting people for hundreds of years. A lack of medical knowledge did not make any connection with asbestos mining or products until 1901. Even then the progress to identify and treat diseases was sluggish through the 2000’s.

Rules were brought in as early as 1931 and 1937 but little was done to raise the problem of asbestos or do anything about it.

Further laws in 1961 still failed to bring a wholesale change in attitudes until October 1965 when a paper released by Newhouse & Thompson revealed the connection with even modest amounts of asbestos and the deadly disease mesothelioma.

What did the Newhouse paper do?

The paper brought the dangers of asbestos to the national attention. The courts have adopted this as a benchmark by which a reasonable employer should have been taking measures to prevent workers being exposed to asbestos.

New regulations were brought in during 1969 but were slow to be enforced. Even the introduction of the Health & safety at Work Act 1974 did little to change the situation.

The dangers of asbestos were being more widely known. Through the late 1970’s substitute products were brought in to avoid future problems. However many problems remained then and now as old asbestos was often left on buildings and ships and other places. Sadly unsuspecting people then discover this many years later.

A change in perspective – 1980’s and onwards

By the 1980’s we have seen that there was a change in perspective about asbestos. Tighter regulations in 1987 made employers and occupiers of buildings much more acutely aware of the dangers. Far more testing was to be done, bagging of asbestos and keeping registers became the norm. Nationally the broader use of protection and removal of asbestos was brought into play.

Further regulations have followed in 2002 and 2006.

However, we still get telephone calls from people who have entered places with asbestos. Some have drilled into walls made with asbestos and unwittingly exposed them and others to asbestos.

It is often a worry that whilst employers purport to be health and safety aware the reality is rather different. Tick box lists and documents do not tell the full story. Our worry is that even now many are exposed to asbestos which may incubate for many years into the future.

Asbestos numbers and the future

Starting on asbestos cases in 1991, I expected that the peak in case would arrive in about 10 years or so. As time has progressed that peak has been put back several times and has broadly settled on 2020. At that stage about 2600 people were diagnosed each year with the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.

It was expected that the number of sufferers would fall greatly year and year and be broadly gone by 2040.

The reality is a little different. Numbers are only dropping off by about a quarter. The remaining rump of people who will be diagnosed and shall die due to asbestos disease in the future remains potentially into the hundreds of thousands.

Why is asbestos disease not going away?

There are several reasons why asbestos disease is still affecting people and shall do so in the future. From our experience in practice we find that there are several reasons:-

1. The latency of asbestos – asbestos fibres inhaled can lay dormant in the body for up to 60 years. Thus people now in their seventies and eighties may only now be suffering with confirmed asbestos disease
2. The increasing age of the population with many elder people living into their nineties. For these the possibility of incubated asbestos developing into asbestos disease remains a risk. Our firm has dealt with an increasing number of asbestos victims – one of our latest clients is aged 95.
3. There is no sell by date with asbestos and no means of getting it out of the body. Many who may even have not known they were exposed to asbestos are a ticking clock ready to set off
4. The improvement in the diagnosis tools available to the respiratory teams is so much better. Thousands more people who would normally have been ignorant of asbestos disease are finding out that they have the disease.

So what can I do if I am worried about asbestos disease?

It is all too easy as a legal firm acting for asbestos victims to raise alarms and to worry everyone. That is not our way at Corries. We help those who have a real and tangible disease and for whom we can get benefits and compensation.

About 90% of the people who call us have asbestos related pleural plaques. Thankfully they do not cause symptoms and since 2005 do not attract compensation. For those people joining our FREE asbestos pleural plaque register is a sensible measure.

For any others we implore them to take early and sensible medical and legal advice. All too often claims are made years too late and where someone has died. The golden opportunity to get a work history from a victim is lost. The case is usually more difficult then.

Our advice is to speak to your doctor and get a clear diagnosis or a clean bill of health first. Many people who have worked in asbestos may get pleural plaques. This can be a marker of the risk of asbestos disease in the future. Most however do not get anything more.

If you have pleural plaques then join our FREE pleural plaque register. We can secure the information needed if you develop something worse later. See details here https://www.corries.co.uk/asbestos-pleural-plaques/

If you have asbestos disease then our team will happily talk to you and discuss the options open to you. We are always happy to discuss matters on a a confidential basis.

Call us FREE on 0800 083 7839