There is mounting pressure for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to impose tighter restrictions on the presence of airborne dust in the workplace.  Currently employers may not exceed 4mg of dust per cubic metre of air. However, unions wish to see the limit reduced to 1mg per cubic metre citing that workers are becoming ill as a consequence of the 4mg threshold.  They also want the HSE to raise public awareness regarding the dangers of workplace dust. Such a campaign has been recommended by the HSE’s own WATCH scientific advisory committee.

 

Unions are so concerned by the dangers presented by the limits that they have agreed to self impose a 1mg restriction as an interim measure. Clearly, this agreement is not enforceable against employers in law and the backing of the HSE is required to make non-unionised workplaces safer.

 

This move is supported by the Institute of Occupational Medicine which has stated that ‘until safe limits are put in place, employers should aim to keep exposure to respirable dust below 1mg per cubic metre’.

 

Nonetheless, the HSE has refused to either reduce the dust threshold or to institute a campaign of public awareness.

 

Many types of dust are recognised causes of lung disease; wood dust can cause lung cancer and silica dust can cause a chronic condition known as silicosis making it difficult to breathe. 

 

Comment

 

Comparisons can be drawn between the present day and yesteryear when asbestos was a common workplace dust. Had tighter restrictions been imposed when the dangers of asbestos became known, many thousands of workers would have been saved from diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma and pleural thickening.   

 

The HSE has an opportunity to protect present day workers from similarly disabling diseases and one would hope that it grasps it.

 

Contact details:  

 

 

 

 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

< Prev		Next >