A hard-hitting campaign has been launched across Kent and Medway to warn tradesmen about the dangers of asbestos.
Dubbed ‘Britain’s hidden killer,’ asbestos-related diseases account for 20 deaths a week in industrial professions in the UK.
Figures revealed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show Medway has one of Britain’s highest concentrations of deaths from mesothelioma – a terminal cancer caused by breathing in the deadly asbestos fibres – with 265 male deaths between 1981 and 2005.
The HSE has now launched the ‘Asbestos: The hidden killer’ campaign in the county, targeting people most at risk, including plumbers, joiners and electricians.
Heather Bryant, HSE regional director for the South East, said it is vital to ensure people realise the dangers.
“Asbestos-related illnesses claim the lives of 4,000 people every year – more than die in road accidents,” she said.
“It is Britain’s biggest industrial killer.
“The most simple but important advice is, if you are not 100 per cent certain that there is no asbestos where you are working, then don’t start work.”
Tradesmen working on a building built or refurbished before the year 2000 could be at risk, with around 500,000 non-domestic buildings containing asbestos.
One Maidstone lady who knows only too well the dangers is Sandra Blackman.
She lost her husband Roger in 2004, just five weeks after he was diagnosed with mesolthelioma.
“Roger was 61 and looking forward to retirement and spending time with his family, but because of this disease he will never know his grandchildren,” she said.
Roger worked as a carpenter and joiner all his life, but had no training or advice about the risks of working with asbestos.
Sandra, who is backing the campaign, said: “I can see that young people today would find it hard to make the link between the work they do now and an illness they may get in 40 years time, but it is so important that they understand.
“There is so much to lose.”
Another former tradesman, Jack Rekert, from Gravesend, is also fully aware of the dangers of asbestos after being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2007.
He is now on a 21-day chemotherapy cycle and needs to have radiation therapy for a suspected secondary tumour on his back.
The former electrician said he was exposed to asbestos in 1985 when working on a three-day refurbishment project.
He was told there was no risk, despite questioning the builder in charge.
Jack is supporting the HSE campaign and said employers should be more vigilant.
“Tradesmen deserve to be kept safe,” he said.
Recalling the moment he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he said: “It was a bolt out the blue.
“I just could not believe it. I knew I wasn’t well but you never think this will happen to you.
“I was devastated, my wife was devastated and my children were devastated. We still are.”
For more information about the campaign visit www.hse.gov.uk/hiddenkiller.
POSTED: 07/11/2009 12:00:00
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