 |
 |
FAQWhy All the Fuss?John Selwyn Gummer, at that time the Under-Secretary of State for Employment, told the House of Commons on 28 July, 1983 that asbestos "is not a substance for which one can set a level below which there is no risk. We must therefore assume that a single fibre could do real damage which may not be seen for 20 years or more." American observers claim that "the United States is suffering from an epidemic of mass murder by the American asbestos industry." Asbestos has been described as "the grand-daddy of all occupational killers." It affects people who come in contact with it at every level. It contaminated the miners who pulled it from the ground, the millers who processed the raw fibre, the men who transported the Hessian bags of fibre from South Africa, Canada, Australia, the dockers who unloaded the cargo, the factory workers who manufactured asbestos products, the wives who washed their clothes and the children who were present at the time. Children of asbestos factory workers have succumbed to asbestos-related diseases caused by para-occupational exposure: i.e. by breathing the fibres brought home on their parents' work clothes. Building workers used asbestos-containing products in the construction of domestic and commercial properties while D-I-Y enthusiasts used asbestos-containing products in their homes. Asbestos-containing materials in British homes constitute an on-going risk to both amateur and professional workmen. People, who continue to work in, inhabit or maintain buildings which contain deteriorating asbestos products are also at risk. Asbestos deaths among caretakers and maintenance men of such buildings are higher than average. Then there are the people who had the misfortune to live near asbestos factories or mines. Asbestos has resulted in disease in members of the public whose only exposure has been environmental. Studies conducted in Armley, Leeds documented an explosion of asbestos-related deaths among people who lived, worked or visited an area adjacent to a former asbestos textile factory. On 27 October, 1995 June Hancock and Evelyn Margereson were awarded £65,000 and £50,000 respectively for environmental asbestos exposure which occurred near the factory owned by J. W. Roberts Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Turner & Newall Ltd. Some years earlier, a London man had received a £45,000 out of court settlement from Cape plc after he alleged that he had contracted mesothelioma from living next door to Cape's East London asbestos factory during his childhood.
|