The role of asbestos in the UK’s high lung cancer rate is being missed

Lung cancer sufferers are missing out on substantial financial help because the link with asbestos is being missed in some cases, the National Asbestos Helpline has reported. More than 43,000 people a year are diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK, but the Health and Safety Executive estimates that...

Learn More

Alarm raised over asbestos risk to workers after Redditch man dies

Experts in asbestos-related diseases at law firm Irwin Mitchell have called for significant improvements in the way asbestos is monitored, managed and handled after new statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed there more than 5,000 deaths from asbestos-related diseases in 2013. The report indicated 2,538 mesothelioma...

Learn More

Care home fined over failure to remove asbestos from site

A Hertfordshire care home has been fined after it failed to ensure asbestos was removed from old buildings before demolition work. The unsafe working practices were revealed after a complaint last spring from a member of the public living close to the former hospital site on Hospital Hill, Chesham, Buckinghamshire....

Learn More

McDonald’s site in Kent contaminated with deadly asbestos

Deadly asbestos is plaguing a site earmarked for a multi-million pound McDonald’s drive-thru restaurant – but the fast food giant says it still plans to open its new branch in Tonbridge next year. The large Cannon Lane development was revealed in 2014, but documents submitted to the council this...

Learn More

Campaigners say thousands of UK soldiers who develop cancer from asbestos exposure treated unfairly by MoD

The Independent has reported that thousands of British veterans who will develop terminal cancer due to being exposed to asbestos during their military service are being unfairly treated by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), campaigners and victims have claimed. Current laws mean that the MoD does not have to...

Learn More

Traces of deadly asbestos in children’s products must be taken seriously, says UKATA

The news that traces of asbestos have been found in children’s crayons in Australia and Canada should be treated seriously says the UK Asbestos Training Association (UKATA). The crayons, which were imported from China, are not to be recalled as it’s believed the product doesn’t pose a danger due...

Learn More