Failings of Cape Asbestos Go Global

The dangerous and sometimes illegal activities carried on at Cape Asbestos have been highlighted in a documentary by World in Action called “The Dust at Acre Mill”.

The British documentary was filmed back in 1972 and has now been placed on You Tube, a popular website where people can upload and watch videos of all manner of things.  

The footage which includes a reconstruction of the daily routines of work undertaken at the mill highlights the horrific conditions the workers were faced with.

One man interviewed for the documentary said they had masks available but they were one size fits all and so a great deal of dust would seep through the sides.

Another told how the illegal process of hand strickling was covered up by the Mill owners who warned workers not to do this when an inspector came to visit. This method of work was not eradicated until 1962.

The documentary reveals that 33 people from Hebden Bridge were diagnosed with an asbestos related illness and a further 19 people’s death certificates were examined and found the same, all of them had worked at Acre Mill.

Another interview called “Fight for Life” with Alice Jefferson, a former client of John Pickering and Partners is also available to watch. Alice died aged only 48 from the asbestos related cancer mesothelioma.

The extracts give a rare insight into how devastating the effects of asbestos can be for people who go on to suffer from asbestos related diseases.

To view the footage from Acre Mill;

Click here for Part 1

Click here for Part 2

Click here for Part 3

To view extracts from the “Alice: Fight for Life” Documentary click here

Nicola Smith
John Pickering and Partners LLP
20 Clare Road
Halifax
HX1 2HX

Tele:               01422 345535
Fax:                01422 438500
E mail:            ns@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 edcation 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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