ASBESTOS STILL TAKING A GRIM TOLL OF LIVES
G
ILLIAN Nicholson was an active and healthy 69-year-old grandmother.
She spent much of her time taking care of her young grandson while her daughter worked and would walk around Cyfarthfa Park, in her home town of Merthyr Tydfil, twice every morning for exercise.
So it came as a surprise to her family when Gillian, who had retired more than 30 years previously, began to suffer from extreme shortness of breath and complained of a pain in her back.
After ruling out a chest infection, doctors eventually diagnosed her with mesothelioma – a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.
Gillian worked as a solderer in a factory until her retirement in 1980.
Her daughter, Bethan Williams, said the heat-proof mats that were present in the factory most likely account for how her mother came into contact with asbestos.
“It was a complete and utter shock,” Bethan, 38, said.
“I had never even heard of it. I’m quite educated, but I never realised you could get cancer from asbestos.
“We didn’t understand it, and it’s heartbreaking to be honest.”
Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that covers the outer surface of some of the body’s organs.
The condition mainly affects the lining of the lungs, although it can also affect the lining of the stomach or heart. The only known cause of the illness is exposure to asbestos dust.
Gillian was diagnosed in January 2017, and sadly died at the age of 72 in August 2019.
According to the NHS, about half of people with mesothelioma will live at least a year after diagnosis.
Bethan said her mother was able to maintain her health for longer because she was fortunate enough to join a trial for the cancer drug Nivolumab.
“Watching my mum suffer was the most heartbreaking thing I could ever describe to you,” Bethan said.
“It’s low-level exposure and as soon as you inhale those fibres it sits in your body, and 30 or 40 years on it presents itself and there’s nothing you can do.”
She added: “I think awareness does need to be out there about it.
“I have read a lot. Recently I think a lot of teachers have been exposed to it because of the bunsen burners and the asbestos mats they were on.
“I think some people think it’s just building sites, but there are various other avenues you can get it from.”
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous mineral and was once widely used in the UK as insulation and a fire retardant.
The import and use of blue and brown asbestos was banned in 1985, while white asbestos was banned in 1999.
Sunday, November 24, marks 20 years since asbestos was completely banned in the UK.
Once inhaled, it can take anywhere from 20 to 50 years for symptoms of mesothelioma to present.
As a result, there are still about 2,500 mesothelioma deaths in England, Scotland and Wales every year, according to the Health and Safety Executive, with signs that the rate will decline in the next decade.
More than half of deaths from mesothelioma were people over 75 and 82% were men.
Richard Green is a partner with law firm Hugh James, and heads a team of solicitors who specialise in asbestos-related disease compensation claims. Richard said although his firm still provided assistance to people who experienced a heavy and prolonged exposure to asbestos, his department was now dealing with many more claims from people who had only limited or fleeting exposures.
“Schools, hospitals and council buildings – through the 1950s to the 1980s, a lot of those buildings were heavily fitted out with asbestos products,” Richard said.
“You can imagine you only need a school caretaker or a hospital maintenance worker to be doing work, and a nurse or teacher has a fleeting exposure, and they go on to develop mesothelioma.
“At the same time we do an awful lot of work for people who have been very directly exposed.
“We pursue civil compensation claims for people diagnosed with mesothelioma and what that can do is it can provide financial security to people,” Richard said.
“Their families in particular. The median life-expectancy is nine months so you often encounter families where the breadwinner, or the person who has the main pension provision, is no longer going to be around.”
Richard said his team often claim for the care and assistance a person may require, as well as funding immunotherapy, which isn’t provided by the NHS.
Amanda Jones is a specialist asbestos lawyer with Thompsons Solicitors, who have offices in Cardiff and Llanelli.
“The people of Wales are paying a heavy price for our nation’s industrial past,” she said.
“It may be 20 years on Sunday since the ban on asbestos was enforced in the UK, but as the recent revelations regarding the Howells Building show, the story didn’t stop there.
“People should be made aware of the very real risks that still exist.”