|
Commenting
in 1903 on the dreadful working conditions of Belfast’s
mill and shipyard workers, James Connolly observed
that Belfast’s “industrial conditions
are the products of modern industrial slavery and
can be paralleled wherever Capitalism flourishes.”
100 years on and despite the floundering of Belfast’s
two main industries, a different generation of shipyard
and industrial workers and their families are suffering
from the legacy of dangerous working conditions and
deliberate industrial negligence. Asbestos related
disease is said to have claimed the lives of over
3,000 people a year in Britain with this number likely
to increase to 10,000 people a year by 2020. In the
North of Ireland hundreds of people have died as a
result with thousands of more deaths expected in the
years to come. Caused by inhaling the fine asbestos
dust, a mineral commonly used in the construction
industry up to the 1970’s, victims can suffer
from four different forms of the disease: asbestosis
which is scarring of the lungs; lung cancer; mesothelioma
which is cancer of the lining of the lungs and chest
or pleural disease which is fluid on the lungs.
There are no cures and with symptoms taking up to
40 years to appear many people suffer and die from
the effects of asbestos exposure without realising
it. Victims range from the men who worked, unprotected,
with asbestos material even after companies became
aware of its harmful effects, others are the women
and children who shook asbestos dust out of their
work clothes and, in some cases, to people who worked
in construction projects that included the installation
of asbestos insulation inside buildings. Today, for
most sufferers being diagnosed is only the beginning
of a long battle for justice and compensation, a process
that often sees them being victimised again by former
employers, the British Government and insurance companies,
all of whom would rather stay silent rather than deliver
justice to these victims.
In
his collection of essays ‘Some Recent Attacks,
Essays Cultural and Political’, James Kelman
argues that there is a “war being waged by
the State against the victims of asbestos”
and that many people who are not diagnosed properly
by the medical profession remain ignorant of the cause
of their illness. Other victims never get to know
that their deteriorating condition is a prescribed
industrial disease caused through negligence. As the
condition must be diagnosed before any redress can
take place the ignorance or downright dismissal of
the disease among the medical profession has caused
many problems for the sufferers. Many find sickness
benefits and compensation claims hampered or delayed.
While suffering from the crippling pain of the disease,
victims and their families face uphill battles to
secure compensation from those responsible. In most
cases the burden of proof falls to the victim and
by the time the disease is diagnosed, the employer
accountable may have gone out of business, or the
time-lapse may prove a major obstacle to bringing
a successful court action. What can only be calculated
stalling by insurance companies, former employers
or sub-contractors (those employed by sub-contractors
are at a greater disadvantage, as they are sometimes
required to prove which company is culpable but it
is difficult to pinpoint at what time the fatal exposure
occurred) and the British Government has led to
many people dying before their cases reach a conclusion.
When the victim dies the crux of the compensation
claim disappears and the families left behind are
not accorded the same consideration. Some are awarded
a nominal sum, if at all.
In
recent years two people close to me were diagnosed
with suffering from the effects of exposure to asbestos.
Both were women and both did not come into direct
contact with the material but were covered with the
dust, one while washing asbestos dust out her father’s
work clothes and the other when washing it out her
husbands’ overalls. Both suffered for years with
chest pains and breathing discomfort and were advised
continually by their GPs that they were suffering
from common chest infections. After diagnosis the
real battle began with the fight for compensation
and for help with coping with what is essentially
a terminal illness. To further hamper their condition,
there is no NHS specialist advice service for asbestos
victims or their families. There are some organisations
and projects like the Justice for Asbestos Victims
in Belfast, which fill this gap on a voluntary basis.
This means that although they may get some grant aid
from local authorities, health authorities, and some
of the larger charities, funding is insecure, resources
are scarce and the workers providing the advice are
volunteers, with occasional help from paid staff.
Quite often the advice workers are themselves ill
with asbestos diseases.
Asbestos
exposure is in the main a disease that is affecting
the working class and is destroying the lives of workers
and their families. Successive British governments
have ignored, denied and even worked against the campaign
for justice and truth for asbestosis sufferers and
in the process have caused further unnecessary grief
for victims and their families. Over the next four
years compensation payouts are expected to total £40m
and over the next 50 years this sum will potentially
reach £190m. With many people exposed to asbestos
right up to the 1970’s it is likely that over
the next 20 years many more people will face the same
battle that has seen many people die without proper
recognition and justice. It is the working class that
has to conquer the stonewalling of those who, clearly
culpable, must accept responsibility and compensate
accordingly.
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
