26 Jan - ASBESTOS RISK: THE SINGLE BIGGEST CAUSE OF WORK-RELATED DEATHS

Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010

Tragically asbestos remains the single biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK. The risk may be alive but more than 4,000 people continue to die each year from asbestos-related diseases¹. And that number, according to Health and Safety Executive (HSE), is predicted to increase to peak around 2016.

The British Safety Council (BSC), a leading health and safety charity, strongly supports the ‘Hidden Killer’ campaign recently launched by HSE to underline the severity of the threat that exposure to asbestos poses particularly to workers in the construction and building maintenance sectors.

The country’s biggest industrial killer is brought into sharp focus by the number of individual cases highlighted as part of the ‘Hidden Killer’ campaign. “Workers have a right to know if asbestos is present in a building they are working on,” said Margaret Dyson, wife of Harold Dyson, a joiner who was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos related disease, in September 2007 and died nine months later aged 71.

It is a commonly held view that the danger from asbestos is well known and therefore no longer widespread. This is a dangerous misperception. Any building constructed or refurbished before 2000 could contain asbestos. As you read this there is the real possibility that the building you are in may contain asbestos - a common material used in many buildings constructed before 2000. But asbestos is dangerous when disturbed. Men and women working in construction and other sectors continue to be at risk by coming into contact with asbestos often without their knowledge.

To Julie Nerney, the British Safety Council’s Chief Executive, the message is clear: “BSC is determined to play its part in drawing employers, property owners and occupiers and workers’ attention to the ‘Hidden Killer’ campaign and create a far broader understanding of the dangers posed by asbestos. It is essential that we help create the environment where contractors, occupiers and workers understand and recognise the dangers and take appropriate precautions to avoid coming into contact with asbestos. BSC will, through its publicity and training provision as the half day awareness course, continue to play a full part in building greater understanding of how the risk posed by asbestos should be carefully and effectively managed.”

Julie Nerney concluded: “Whilst the number of workplace fatalities and major injuries occurring each year in Great Britain remain of great importance and concern, these statistics pale in comparison to the number of people killed from work-related diseases of which asbestos is the biggest single killer. Industry and society as a whole must meet this challenge if we are to prevent countless deaths this year, next year and in the coming years.”

Last year, Christopher Morgan, aged 58 from London, was told that he was suffering from cancer caused by working with asbestos. He said: "I think it's absolutely disgusting that there are people still being exposed to this material.” Christopher’s condition was diagnosed as terminal. Christopher can trace the cause of his mesothelioma back to his days as an apprentice in a metals firm in London's famous jewellery quarter, Hatton Garden. He breathed in deadly asbestos fibres when breaking the substance from pipes with a hammer and sweeping it up before cutting new asbestos jointing and rope to insulate boilers. He was never told anything about the dangers he faced and was never given any protective equipment.

Above all the threat posed by asbestos must be realised as a clear and present danger. Asbestos was not just a threat to our fathers’ generation - it continues to threaten thousands of lives. Tackling the number and the nature of asbestos-related fatalities remains one of the British Safety Council’s top priorities.

Source: British Safety Council Jan 2010