The International Labour Organisation (‘ILO’) has issued a statement confirming its position on the use of asbestos.

 

The ILO is a global body which works with governments, employers and workers to promote universally high standards in working conditions.

 

The Chrysotile Institute is a prominent organisation in the promotion of asbestos exportation around the globe. Currently they are at the centre of a high profile campaign to secure government and private funding for the re-opening of asbestos mines in Quebec, Canada.

 

In recent months organisations, including The Chrysotile Institute, have been using ILO documents as a justification for promoting the continued use of asbestos and asbestos based products. Recently they cited ‘ILO Convention 162, Safety in the Use of Asbestos’ as the basis for its own ‘Safe Use Manual.’  

 

The ILO felt aggrieved at the repeated use of its name in support of the use of asbestos and issued a statement to clarify its stance.

 

The ILO’s position on asbestos is set out and underpinned by a number of international conventions, recommendations and International Labour Conference resolutions.

 

The most important of these are Conventions No. 139 and No. 162. They lay out guidance on replacing asbestos with other less harmful materials, banning the use of asbestos products in certain work processes and gives advice on controlling the release of asbestos dust into the atmosphere.

 

In 2006 the ILO held its ninety-fifth conference. It was at this meeting a resolution concerning asbestos was passed. It commented that Convention No. 162 should not to be used to either support or defend the continued use of asbestos.

 

The resolution also stated that the future use of asbestos should be eliminated. Any asbestos currently in place should be properly identified and managed so that workers can be protected from exposure and future asbestos related illnesses and deaths be prevented.

 

Fiona Murie, the health and safety director of the global construction union federation BWI, said “The ILO........ opposes the ongoing use of a fibre that kills hundreds of thousands of workers every year. The asbestos industry, aided and abetted by the governments of Canada and Quebec, must now cease and desist its callous and cynical subterfuge on asbestos and should accept no-one including the ILO wants its deadly product.”

 

For more information on the ILO visit their website at:-

http://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm

 

Contact details:

Telephone: 0161 834 1251
E-mail: ls@johnpickering.co.uk   
Website: www.johnpickering.co.uk

Notes

 

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors.

 

We are a specialist personal injury law firm.  We have been handling claims for industrial disease for over 30 years.  Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims. 

 

We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers.  We have an ethical approach and pledge to donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers. 

 

Click here to find out about our donations to good causes.  We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law.  Find out more about us or find out about our reported cases.  We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  Click here to find out more about what others have said about us.

 

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

 

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life."   Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

 

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs.  It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

 

According to the British Lung Foundation, more than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015.

 

The British Lung Foundation, supported by John Pickering and Partners LLP, launched the first Action Mesothelioma Day on 27th February 2006, to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people working with asbestos.

 

If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.

 

 

 

 

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