Workers at a chemical plant in Ince, near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire have been potentially exposed to asbestos.  Asbestos was disturbed twice during work at the GrowHow plant.  The first occasion was on the 31^st January when asbestos insulation in the Ammonia Plant Furnace was disturbed.  Then on the 12^th February a worker brushed against an insulated pipe and disturbed asbestos.

 

 

Contractors at the plant were sent home and issued with new protective clothing.  It is thought that several hundred men were working there during the shutdown.

 

The incident was reported by GrowHow to the HSE who have launched an investigation.  It is believed that the potentially contaminated materials were put into skips for disposal and that one skip that was taken off site had to be traced to make it safe.

 

A spokesman for GrowHow said: “The people working inside the reformer plant furnace when the material was disturbed and the contractor who brushed against the pipeline have been spoken to individually and given the necessary advice and support.

 

“Although it is true to say there are several hundred people working on the overhaul only around 40 were working in and around the reformer.”

 

“Asbestos is known to be present on the plant and therefore robust management procedures are in place. In both cases GrowHow’s procedures were quickly enacted by the company. Work was stopped as a precautionary measure, extensive testing undertaken and measures put in place to prevent the spread of any contamination. The affected areas have now been made safe and no asbestos fibres have been detected anywhere outside of these affected areas.”

 

She continued: “Contractors coming on to the site to work on these shutdowns are clearly informed during their induction that there is asbestos on the plant and are given clear information on what they should do, should they have any concerns about materials that they are working with. In both instances, as soon as concerns were raised, work was immediately stopped.”

 

She said that a specialist testing service and specialist removal teams were on site 24 hours a day during the shutdown and had immediately sealed off affected areas.

 

However, Colin Wharton, a worried contractor from Liverpool, claimed he had been told that “there was no asbestos on site” and then was reassured by site supervisors after the first incident that there was no risk.

 

He claimed a meeting which resulted in workers being sent home on Sunday only took place at the request of workers who “were worried and wanted reassurance” after reports that “a guy had all white powder over his clothing” on Saturday.

 

Mr Wharton said: “I think it’s a disgrace. There are hundreds of guys on site, each one of them taking clothes home to their families to wash.

 

“It can be passed on in anything, as long as you breathe in the fibres, that’s it. It’s not something you see straight away, but 20 years down the line people are dying slow painful deaths.

 

“I’m worried, my name’s down on the list for people who may have been affected and I would class myself as one of the highest risk because I’m working in the same area, brushing dust off scaffolds down to clean it. The dust particles could be asbestos.”

 

Comment

 

Asbestos can still be found in many commercial, domestic and public buildings and without education workers cannot be expected to identify the presence or potential presence of asbestos.

 

Workers exposed to asbestos are at risk of developing a number of diseases including pleural plaques, pleural thickening, asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. 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 are expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015. 

About John Pickering and Partners LLP

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors

 

We are a dedicated personal injury law firm who do not do other types of work.  We specialise in claiming damages for asbestos sufferers. We have been handling compensation claims for industrial disease for over 30 years. Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims who suffer from mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening. 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 donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.  We have set up a charitable trust to help to fund medical research into mesothelioma and various organisations that help and support asbestos sufferers and their families.

 

Find out more 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  our reported cases. We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  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 landmark 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).

 

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 first Action Mesothelioma Day was launched on 27th February 2006.  Its objectives were 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 who may be exposed to asbestos.

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

 

Contact us to find out more about your entitlement to claim compensation if you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer or pleural thickening.

 

For more information about asbestos diseases-

www.johnpickering.co.uk

 

For practical information and support concerning mesothelioma-

www.mesothelioma-advice.co.uk

 

For more information about claiming for different types of asbestos disease-

Mesothelioma compensation claims

Lung cancer compensation claims

Asbestosis compensation claims

Pleural thickening compensation claims

 

 

For more an explanation about different types of asbestos conditions-

Different asbestos conditions

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