June/July 2010 - PAWPRINT PUBLISHING

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HEALTH & SAFETY Asbestos: Britain’s biggest industrial killer A JOINER from West Lothian has told how he is coming to terms with the fact that he has fallen victim to Britain’s biggest industrial killer — asbestos. John Greig, who lives in Whitburn, spent more than a decade as a wood worker on the railway coaches in Glasgow during the 50s and early 60s. When metal coaches were introduced, John worked on the coaches ripping out the asbestos lagging by hand. Little did he know that this exposure to asbestos would eventually lead to mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the lungs. Like many tradesmen at the time, John worked with asbestos and never knew the risks. No protective equipment or clothing was provided or used until later years — when the danger was well known. John retired from his career as a woodworker/joiner when he was 65, yet still full of energy he took on a part time job in the local supermarket, working until he was 72 years. John’s first symptom of the deadly disease was a chesty cough. Aged 74 years, John was diagnosed with mesothelioma — this was over 50 years after his initial exposure to the deadly substance, asbestos. He was given 10-14 months to live. Mesothelioma can take anywhere from 15 to 60 years before it becomes active and starts attacking the external lining of the lungs. The majority of sufferers die within one or two years of being diagnosed. In the early stages of his diagnosis in 2005, John underwent several operations to remove fluid from his lungs, the last one in Since 2008, the Health & Safety Executive has run an asbestos awareness campaign aimed at protecting tradesmen and craftsmen from harm. We support this campaign: this case study has been supplied to us by the HSE. 2008. “I looked like Spiderman with tubes coming out of me; they removed four litres of fluid on one particular occasion. “What happens with mesothelioma is that you are drowning on dry land. There is no cure for it — your lungs are just closing up all the time. It’s horrible to see x-rays of your lungs getting blacker and blacker — that makes it real.” John explained that his wife and family were devastated with the news of his illness. His main worry following his diagnosis was to make sure that all his paperwork and business was in order before he died. Nearly five years after his diagnosis John, now 78 years, explains the effect the illness has had on his life: “You just can’t do what you’d like to do. I can’t fly any more and I am very tired. I loved walking, but now my limit is walking 100 yards very slowly. “You have to adapt and find ways to do things that you used to take for granted, like bending down and going up the stairs. Tying my shoe laces was too much of an effort and all of my shoes are now the slip on type. … You get annoyed at yourself because you can’t do what you used to do. But you’ve got to make light of it. You can’t let it get to you.” John and his late wife, Mary, loved to spend time with their friends and family, and take holidays abroad. Following his diagnosis with mesothelioma John could no longer travel — and despite his encouragement, his wife never took another holiday because she was too scared to leave him. John would like to pay tribute to the outstanding work of Clydesdale Action on Asbestos Support Group, whose support he is very grateful for. He is now an active member of the group, campaigning to raise awareness of asbestos and providing one-to-one support to those struggling to come to terms with their diagnosis of mesothelioma. John summarises his motivation to the cause: “What’s past is past but you can do something about tomorrow.” He has a very strong message for the tradesmen of today and in particular to those just starting out on their career: “Asbestos is something you don’t see and it took me 40 years before I displayed symptoms and discovered I had mesothelioma. Please learn from my story. Don’t be fooled by asbestos, don’t be macho. Nothing can make up for your health but you don’t realise that when you are young. Be careful, use the correct equipment and remember the dangers. Listen to the messages of this campaign.” John is backing the Health & Safety Executive’s national campaign called “Asbestos — The Hidden Killer”. The campaign has been running successfully since 2008 and aims to raise awareness among tradesmen of the risks posed by asbestos by emphasising the hard-hitting fact that every week on average 20 tradesmen die from this Hidden Killer. Health & Safety Executive Tel 0845 345 0055 www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/ hiddenkiller/index.htm Landmark ruling changes outlook for asbestos cases THOUSANDS of victims of asbestos could claim compensation after a landmark ruling changed the way cases are judged. Widow, Della Sabin, was awarded £100,000 at the Royal Courts of Justice London — in the case of Sabin v British Railway Board (Residuary) Ltd — in December after the death of her husband Leslie to asbestosis three years previously. Leslie had worked as a lorry driver in the 1950s, delivering asbestos from Wigan rail depot to Turner & Newall’s Hindley Green plant. He was exposed to asbestos from the hessian sacks in which the material was stored. Leslie was diagnosed with asbestosis in 2004 and his widow took up his fight for justice after Leslie lost his battle with the condition in 2006. Barrister Simon Kilvington, of 18 St John Street Chambers, acted in the case and said this will set a precedent for future asbestos-related claims. “It was an important case as defendants previously relied on the Llandough Hospital research, stating 20 million fibres of asbestos had to be found in lung tissue to conclude whether the material had caused the disease. The figure was set following research in industries where exposure was high. “An American expert, Dr Roggli, gave evidence much lower levels of asbestos in the lungs are sufficient to attribute the disease to the exposure. “Judge Justice Swift agreed with the evidence asbestos fibres could have cleared from the body in the years following Leslie’s exposure and said the Cardiff laboratory benchmark was ‘probably significantly too high’. “This effectively lowered the bar for a claimant with a case of asbestosis and also lung cancer cases where the level of asbestos fibres in the lungs is a factor.” Leslie Sabin died 40 years after his exposure to asbestos. As many as 28 million fibres may have ‘cleared’ from his body in that time, the court heard. The British Railways Board accepted a breach of duty in exposing Leslie to asbestos. Asbestosis is one of a number of asbestos-related conditions, with mesothelioma and lung cancer cases also attributed to the material. 18 St John Street Chambers Tel 0161 278 1800 Email jhammond@18sjs.com www.18sjs.com Page 28 Panel, Wood & Solid Surface June/July 2010
HEALTH & SAFETY Dustraction completes major duct reworking project for JELD-WEN at Melton Mowbray ARCHITECTURAL joinery manufacturer JELD-WEN is strategically closing its quayside factory site in Lowestoft and relocating the manufacture of timber windows, patio door frames and staircases to existing sites in Melton Mowbray. Dustraction won the contract to re-configure the extraction layout at the new factory and to link major joinery plant in line with JELD-WEN management’s very high standards of waste management. Production engineer, Andrew Ellwood, says: “We are planning a phased closure of the Lowestoft site over the next few months — changes in our timber supply chain make the quayside location redundant; the site is also much larger than we now need and is therefore an overhead too many. We are bringing in sustainable European redwood timbers under contract with a new and exclusive Swedish supplier and this will now come into Hull and go out to the factories on an as-needed basis. “The Lowestoft factory was a former Boulton & Paul site which we acquired in 1999 and it focused mainly on mill work, producing standard-sized window and door components. But the old highthroughput techniques of the 20th century are out of date now. Our product offering is increasingly bespoke and so we are pursuing ever smaller batch sizes, and investing in more flexible machinery. Like everyone in the current climate, we have to make savings and maximise resources whenever and wherever we can.” JELD-WEN’s status as a worldclass architectural joinery manufacturer is, in part, dependent on responsible environmental stewardship which includes the company’s approaches to energy efficiency through natural resources, air and water emissions, indoor air quality in the working environment plus manufacturing waste management and recycling. JELD-WEN is one of Britain’s most forward thinking users of sustainable timber resources and is dedicated to the maximisation of waste Three Dustrax No. 66 heavy duty paddle-blade, vee-belt driven fans are powered by two 110 kW and one 90 kW motors. Three main duct runs, each measuring 1,000 mm in diameter and running externally for approximately 100 metres. Dustraction attends the new Melton Mowbray site of JELD-WEN with crane to move long ductwork sections. as a valuable bio fuel resource. Dustraction’s Steve Matuska said: “On this project there are three main duct runs, each measuring 1,000 mm in diameter and running externally for approximately 100 metres before entering the main building, at which point they disperse to pick up with various machines. The ducting is manufactured to Dustraction’s Class A aerodynamically efficient design and to exacting quality standards and all is supported for rigid, vibration-free operation in order to shift approximately 10,000 tonnes of wood waste annually.” The three Dustrax No. 66 heavy duty paddle-blade, vee-belt driven fans are powered by two 110 kW and one 90 kW motors and each incorporates a control panel with soft starts to discharge waste directly into two large filters, each incorporating over 100 filter sleeves. Waste is then discharged directly to two 40 ft trailers for recycling. The JELD-WEN legend began in Oregon in the United States in 1960 and the Group now employs 20,000 people worldwide: the UK company, with its HQ factory in Sheffield, is on-track, says Andrew Ellwood, to become Britain’s number one manufacturer of key architectural joinery products. A decade ago, JELD-WEN acquired the John Carr and Boulton & Paul brands and the group is now operating from five factories across the UK. While the Quayside site at Lowestoft will cease to operate under the JELD-WEN banner during the summer of 2010, output at the two main Melton Mowbray factories is set to rise ‘exponentially’ and will make a major contribution towards the market share targets of the company’s board in Sheffield. And Dustraction too is now playing its part in the waste management and sustainability ambitions of the JELD-WEN manufacturing team further South in Melton Mowbray. Dustraction Ltd Tel 0116 271 3212 Email steve.matuska@dustraction.co.uk www.dustraction.co.uk Panel, Wood & Solid Surface June/July 2010 Page 29
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