Asbestos is the biggest occupational killer in the UK and is causative in around one-percent of all cancers in Scotland.
Although typically associated with high-risk trades and industries such as construction, carpentry, shipbuilding, lagging and plumbing, asbestos has also left a profound legacy of illness and loss in the teaching profession.
If you have worked as a teacher and have since been diagnosed with an asbestos-related illness, contact Thompsons Solicitors Scotland today for advice about how you might be able to claim compensation for your losses. Call 0800 0891331 for more information regarding asbestos claims for teachers.
Asbestos and teachers, the facts
According to official figures, in the twenty-five years between 1989 and 2005, more than 250 teachers have died as a result of the deadly asbestos cancer mesothelioma, with a disproportionate number of deaths arising in the five years between 2000 and 2005. In fact, the number of deaths is not expected to peak until 2016.
Between the 1950s and 1980s asbestos was used in almost all newly built schools and nurseries in Scotland.
Unfortunately, asbestos was inadequately protected meaning that simple tasks such as moving furniture, tacking work to walls and building repair work resulted in it being disturbed. In this situation both pupils and teachers often inhaled or ingested the substance, which has led to many developing the illness today.
Robin Howie, a member of Watch, the Government's advisory parliamentary committee on science, comments, "Rates in male and female classroom workers are ten and three times higher respectively than expected in jobs not exposed to asbestos."
Mesothelioma and teachers
Mesothelioma, a cancer of the mesothelial cells which cover the surface of the lungs and abdomen, is the biggest killer of all asbestos illnesses. It is almost always caused by asbestos and is invariably fatal.
Many teachers who inhaled microscopic asbestos fibres have developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to dust in the classroom. It is likely that the link between asbestos deaths and teaching is underreported. As such many sufferers and their families go without the compensation they deserve.
Asbestos compensation with Thompsons Solicitors
Thompsons Solicitors is Scotland's and the UK's leading personal injury firm. We can help in the following situations.
- Where workers have suffered direct exposure to asbestos
- Where the illness is as result of secondary exposure
- Where families are claiming for the loss of a loved one
Although Thompsons Solicitors cannot turn back the clock, we can help you ensure recognition, compensation and some level of practical provision to assist in the fallout of an asbestos illness diagnosis.
Call 0800 0891331 today to talk with one our specialist lung disease lawyers.
