Asbestos – a historical time bomb
Those that are either involved in personal injury work, who work in the medical profession or have tragically been exposed to asbestos will be aware that, whilst asbestosis often appears to be an issue which is historical, the problems of asbestos in buildings are still present and the latent effects of this substance are still killing people.
In fact, as new data suggests, rather than the number of asbestos related illnesses and deaths tailing off, they are in fact increasing based on the fact this horrible illness often takes decades to manifest.
Research from the BBC indicates that deaths relating to asbestos are at an all-time high and have quadrupled since the 1980’s in Eastern England. To put this into some kind of practical context, 115 people tragically died of asbestosis in the County of Essex alone last year
The Health & Safety Executive advises that asbestos related deaths are likely to continue to increase in the next 5 years and many people do not know that use of asbestos and the killer dust that it creates were only banned from use in 1999 and that there are still many buildings which contain this killer dust.
Many jump on the bandwagon of criticizing all kinds of personal injury claims as being somehow unjustified or a “gravy train” but asbestos related personal injury claims, like thousands of other personal injury claims, leave victims and their families in a tragic situation through no fault of their own. These claims are legitimate and often go unpublicised.
