Asbestos sufferers in pleural plaques protest
Asbestos sufferers in pleural plaques protest
Trade unionists and asbestos support groups from across the country have called for compensation for asbestos related pleural plaques to be reinstated. A 29 January lobby of parliament set out to convince the government the October 2007 decision by the Law Lords to stop payouts must be overturned (Risks 328). The Scottish government has already said it will introduce legislation to reverse the decision (Risks 335). The campaigners argue that while workers with pleural plaques do not suffer physical symptoms - the Law Lords ruled it was not a disease - they are more likely to develop asbestos-related cancers in later life. Laggers' union GMB said 30 per cent of its members diagnosed with pleural plaques go on to develop the incurable asbestos cancer mesothelioma. Speaking last week ahead of the demonstration, UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie said: 'The Law Lords decision was wrong and is a major injustice for thousands of workers. Urgent legislation is essential to compensate workers who through no fault of their own have had their health damaged.' Writing in the Tribune newspaper, GMB political officer Steve Kemp said: 'The only winners... in the pleural plaques case were the insurers who could save as much £1.4 billion as a result of the decision... It placed the business interests of a wealthy industry ahead of the suffering of ordinary working men and women.' GMB national health and safety officer John McClean said: 'GMB believe pleural plaques to be a disease and medical textbooks describe them as such. The law has always accepted that scar tissue on the outside of the body is an injury so we believe that scar tissue on the inside of the body to be an injury. Scarring is an injury wherever it occurs. People with pleural plaques suffer with stress and the fear of death all their lives - fearing that plural plaques could develop into mesothelioma.'
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