Asbestos exposure in youth kills Poulton pensioner

A POULTON pensioner described as fit and strong by his family died from exposure to asbestos, an inquest heard.
Morris William Banks was diagnosed with mesothelioma in June 2006 and died on November 28.

Blackpool Coroner's Court heard the 78-year-old had worked as an apprentice at John Lumb and Co in his native Leeds, where part of his job involved removing
asbestos powder from cables used for working with high heat and glass manufacture.

Mr Banks, of Hardhorn Road, Poulton, later moved to Central Electricity Generating Board in Leeds where, he told his solicitor in a statement before he died, he worked in old power stations, with asbestos insulation on the pipework.

He said lagging and other maintenance work often went on in the vicinity, creating dust and there was no protective clothing or respiratory protection.

Mark Sissons, consultant pathologist at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, said when he carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Banks he found a mesothelioma tumour in his chest, which had started to spread to his heart and liver. There were asbestos fibres in the lung tissue.

Coroner Anne Hind recorded a verdict of death caused by the industrial disease diffuse malignant pleural mesothelioma, as a result of exposure to asbestos.

She said: "It's quite frightening to think it happened all those years ago. According to the medical profession, we are going to see an explosion in these types of cases over the next few years."

Asbestos in nine out of 10 Kent schools

ASBESTOS is contained in almost ALL of Kent's schools.

Figures obtained by the BBC programme Inside Out under the Freedom of Information Act reveal 554 out of the county's 599 schools have the potentially deadly material in the fabric of their buildings.

Most have the least harmful white chrysotite asbestos, which was banned in 1999, and the more harmful amosite brown asbestos, banned in 1985.

A minority of schools also have the most dangerous blue crocidolite asbestos.

The material would have been used in the construction of school's in post-war Britain. It poses a health threat if it is exposed and then crumbles but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says asbestos poses no threat as long as it remains sealed inside buildings. The agency adds it would be dangerous to try and remove the material.

Instead the Government intends to bring in a programme to replace or refit old schools.

Around 4,000 deaths a year are related to people breathing in fibres from asbestos which can result in mesothelioma and lung cancer.

But fears that there will be a rise in teachers dying from asbestos-related diseases have prompted the National Union of Teachers to demand all schools be stripped of asbestos.

John Walder, secretary of the NUT Kent branch, said: "The NUT's view is quite clear, we think that the solution is the complete removal of asbestos from all the working spaces.

"As long as local authorities do not remove asbestos from a site, there will be a risk of fibres getting into the atmosphere and getting into people's lungs."

Children could also be at risk of breathing in the deadly fibres. Dr Robin Howie, an independent asbestos consultant, said: "We are looking at a substantially higher number of mesothelioma deaths in teachers than we would expect.

"What it means is that teacher mesotheliomas are important because they are the tip of the iceberg. And that iceberg are the mesotheliomas in children."

Some five teachers a year die from mesotheliomas.

Firms checked for asbestos risk

Checks are being carried out on businesses in the Chichester district this week by council environmental health officers to make sure they are not exposing employees, contractors or visitors to harmful asbestos fibres.
"Preventing asbestos-related disease is still a vital issue," said a statement issued by the district council.

"With around 4,000 deaths each year – over 16 times the number of deaths from accidents at work – asbestos-related diseases remain the
largest occupational killers in the UK, and numbers are continuing to rise."

Around 25 per cent of those dying from asbestos-related disease had worked in the building maintenance and repair trades at some time during their working lives.

Asbestos could cause a number of diseases, including mesothelioma, which was specifically linked to the exposure of asbestos fibres.

According to the British Mesothelioma Register, 48 people from the Chichester district died from the disease between 1985 and 2004, and this number was increasing.

The Chichester officers would be making visits as part of a Sussex-wide campaign, working in partnership with other councils and the Health and Safety Executive.

The regulations required all those with responsibilities for control or repair and maintenance of buildings to: look for and identify any asbestos present; keep a record of its location and condition; assess the risks from its presence; manage and control those risks by either removal or sealing and monitoring its condition; and inform anyone who might accidentally disturb it.