Slow killer still lurks in buildings

EDITORIAL: Asbestos became popular as a building material in the 20th century because of its many desirable qualities. Technologies of the age produced a lot of heat, and asbestos was considered to be fireproof. It was also cheap, durable and easy to work with. But, over time, it has proved to be deadly.

Exposure to asbestos is implicated in 80 per cent of cases of mesothelioma, a cancer which affects the lining of the chest and the abdomen. Around 100 new cases are reported in New Zealand each year. There is no cure.

One of the New Zealand manufacturers of asbestosladen building products was James Hardie, under the brand name Fibrolite. Now, an 84-year-old widow with mesothelioma is suing that company.

Elva Halliday’s husband Patrick worked for James Hardie from the 1950s until 1976 and died of lung cancer in 1992. Elva Halliday believed she developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos dust from washing her husband’s overalls, which were usually covered in it.

Halliday’s lawsuit is believed to be the first so-called ‘‘washerwoman claim’’ in New Zealand. Her lawyers will contend that James Hardie failed to protect her family against a known toxic substance. Patrick Halliday would play with his four children, now in their middle age, in his dust-laden work clothes when he arrived home from the factory.

The term ‘‘washerwoman claim’’ has been used by the legal profession in Britain to describe precedentsetting cases which established that wives of asbestos workers were entitled to have their compensation claims heard in court.

The outdated terminology also signals that this is a public health issue that has been developing for a very long time. Asbestos-related illness can take decades to show up, but then it develops rapidly and can kill within months. Half of the sufferers are aged over 70.

The dangers have been known for more than a century. Warnings about the asbestos have been found in New Zealand publications from the 1930s to 1950s. A 1960 Health Department report noted the statistical link between asbestos and bronchogenic cancer.

Despite this, asbestos was used as a building material until the mid-1980s, and there are still large amounts of it in older New Zealand buildings, making it a continuing hazard. Probably thousands of people still living were exposed to significant amounts of asbestos in the workplace.

The James Hardie factory at Penrose in Auckland operated from 1938 and produced asbestos products until 1987. It employed up to 600 people at a time. In Christchurch, Durock Industries, a Fletcher subsidiary, operated a factory in Riccarton from 1943 until 1974.

The ACC resisted asbestos victims’ compensation claims in the courts before accepting liabilities which have now topped $100 million.

James Hardie, facing a suit which might expose it to further claims and risks, will not comment on a matter now before the courts.

If the case does go ahead, the evidence in court may well shed further light on a long-standing public health disaster which we do not yet fully understand.