Personal injury news

Living with asbestos 'time bomb'
A High Court judge has ruled that people with lung scarring from asbestos exposure will retain their right to claim compensation, after a group of insurers attempted to halt the payments.

But the amounts that can be claimed for having the condition - called pleural plaques - are to be reduced.

BBC News talked to one man whose claim was used in the test case:
When Ken Johnston retires he'd like to sell the house, buy a yacht and sail off into the sunset with his wife Lynne.

But the 58-year-old says he often wakes up in the night wondering if he'll live to see that day.

After being exposed regularly to asbestos for around five years in the 1970s, Mr Johnston has pleural plaques - a permanent and incurable scarring on the lining of the lungs, often described as a "marker" of asbestos exposure.

He is one of 10 men whose claims for compensation were used by insurers challenging High Court rulings made in the 1980s that the condition was worthy of compensation.

Pleural plaques rarely cause breathlessness or pain, and only a small proportion of those diagnosed later also develop full blown cancer, such as the often fatal mesothelioma.

But tens of thousands of sufferers have received compensation of around £5,000-15,000 for the condition over the last two decades, due to the increased risk they face and the anxiety caused by knowing their lungs are irreversibly damaged by the substance.

"You know the asbestos is there, you are living with that thought in your mind every day," says Mr Johnston.

"It's like living with a time bomb inside you, but you don't know when it's going to go off, or if it's going to go off.

"It's the not knowing whether yours is the one set to explode, in 10 years, 15 years...and knowing that it will never get better."

Mr Johnston, who lives near Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, said he has researched the subject thoroughly since first finding out he had pleural plaques four years ago.

'Too frightened'

"It worries me. You see programmes about these men who die of these asbestos diseases and it's a horrible death. I try to put it out of my mind, but sometimes I wonder if I'll make it to retirement."

The risk of someone with pleural plaques eventually getting cancer depends on how much exposure a person has had, and for how long.

According to the physician who gave expert evidence in the case, Dr Robin Rudd, those - like Mr Johnston - with a moderate exposure would have a risk of around 3-5%.

Mr Johnston was 29 when he joined NEI (Northern Engineering Industries) Cochran Boilers as a service engineer in 1975.

During his first five-year stint at the company - he left in 1980 and later returned - asbestos rope seals were routinely used for boiler fittings.

"Each time you removed them they had to be replaced. The stuff was given to us in big rolls, in polythene bags, which we stored in the boot of our cars.
"We had to hack at them to cut pieces off, and we had to chisel the old rope from the boilers doors with a kind of home-made hack saw.

"By then people had heard that asbestos was dangerous. I asked for a mask once, but they just said 'what do you want that for?'"

Mr Johnston, who has a 21-year-old son, said he suspected from the time he left NEI in 1985 that he may have suffered from his exposure, but was "too frightened" to go to the doctor.

"I didn't want to know really."

After experiencing breathlessness, which he says may not have been related to his condition, his wife urged him to go to the doctor.

Types of asbestos disease

Mesothelioma: form of cancer nearly always caused by asbestos, usually fatal
Asbestos-related lung cancer: more likely to develop in smokers
Asbestosis: form of fibrosis affecting lung function. Incurable but not cancerous
Diffuse pleural fibrosis or thickening: can cause pain and breathlessness
Benign pleural effusion: build up of fluid in chest cavity, can be treated
Pleural plaques: scars on lining of lung, visible on x-ray

'No ethics'

"I went for an unrelated problem in the end, but while I was there I mentioned I had been exposed to asbestos, and my GP sent me for an x-ray."

"They first said they thought I had pleural thickening - which is worse that pleural plaques - but I had no idea what it was."

Mr Johnston later contacted Thompsons Solicitors - who have worked alongside Manchester-based law firm John Pickering & Partners on fighting the recent legal challenge - to help with his compensation claim.

He was sent to a specialist and diagnosed with pleural plaques.
After many delays in his case he was offered £4,500 by NEI's insurer Norwich Union, only to have it withdrawn because his case had been chosen to help the insurer fight the wider High Court battle.

In his current job as a contracts manager with US firm Honeywell, Mr Johnston often gets involved with health and safety issues, and says the contrast between attitudes now and in the 70s and 80s is staggering.

"The asbestos was like snow when I was working with it. These days if there is the slightest disturbance of it the whole area is cleared."

He is angry, he says, that such standards were not in place when he was a young man working face-to-face with the substance.

"I think people knew the dangers but chose to do nothing about it. This recent court case has made me feel sick and let down.

"Ethics have gone out of the window. It's all about saving money."

www.bbc.co.uk/news 16/02/2005