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Attention: business, social and industrial correspondents and newsdesk editors

2 pages

Asbestos - the hidden killer

Asbestos has killed thousands of workers in the shipbuilding and engineering, construction and energy sectors.

12,000 people have died from asbestos poisoning since 2002.

By 2015 10,000 people each year will die from asbestos poisoning.

With those horrendous statistics in mind, the Northern TUC, in association with Thompsons Solicitors are holding an asbestos seminar on Friday 21^st January at Abbey House in Barrow in Furness. The seminar will highlight the dangers both now and in the future.

Kevin Rowan, Northern TUC Regional Secretary said, ' Industrial towns like Barrow, where for generations the population of Furness and the surrounding area have enjoyed the benefits of working in engineering and shipbuilding, nonetheless carry a heavy legacy of incapacity and ill-health as a result of that type of employment.

Asbestos-related illnesses are perhaps the worst, most dramatic and most lethal of the effects of this heritage. But increasingly we are seeing workers from other sectors of the economy; particularly those in public services, experiencing asbestos poisoning as the public buildings built in the 1960s and earlier begin to crumble.

Almost all of these buildings: town halls, libraries and schools, are littered with asbestos that presents a risk to those that work there and the members of the public that use those buildings and services.'

Ian McFall, Head of the National Asbestos Team at Thompsons Solicitors added, ' Trade union members were the backbone of the workforce at Barrow shipyard and it was trade union members that worked in conditions where they were routinely exposed to asbestos. Decades later, it’s now these members who are developing, and dying from, asbestos-related disease - caused by their employers’ negligence.

Trade unions offer the highest standard of legal service to their members and former members who suffer from asbestos-related disease. Only trade unions can be trusted to deliver assistance with compensation claims, at no cost to their members, win or lose.

Trade union law firms have fought the ground-breaking cases which established entitlement to compensation in asbestos cases, and remain at the forefront of the challenge to secure the highest compensation awards for asbestos victims.'

Notes to Editors:

The seminar will begin at 9.30am and end at 1.00pm

All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

Contacts:

Media enquiries : Kevin Rowan on 07766250074

Press release (500 words) issued 14 Jan 2005