Health and Safety: Asbestos Register
The FBU runs an asbestos register – a record of members who believe they were exposed to the lethal dust while working for the fire service.
The register is an invaluable database of information that can help to speed up the process of compensation claims for members who become ill due to asbestos exposure. It records the names of members, employers, the workplaces where they came into contact with asbestos and the relevant dates. Other unions have databases too.
Because asbestos-related diseases normally only become apparent between 20 and 50 years after the exposure it is all too easy for the union to lose contact with members who may have been exposed. Their colleagues too, who could act as vital witnesses in any claim for compensation – now or in the future - may also have moved away. Older retired firefighters, some of whom might have lost contact with the union, can register too.
By holding this type of information on a database the union and its solicitors can easily search for those who may have been exposed during the key period when asbestos was present both in buildings and in protective equipment such as blankets, anti-flash hoods and gloves.
In the UK about 3,500 people will die this year from an asbestos related illness and this figure is expected to rise to around 10,000 deaths a year by 2020.
Not all asbestos related diseases are fatal. While mesothelioma is the worst consequence of past asbestos exposure and is always fatal, other conditions include: asbestosis, a form of fibrosis which causes breathing difficulties and can be progressive; pleural thickening, which involves thickening of the lining to the lungs and can be largely symptomless; and pleural plaques which are calcified areas of tissue, normally symptomless but often (as with pleural thickening) a cause of great anxiety.
They are evidence of exposure to asbestos and of pathological change caused by it. They can indicate the sufferer is at a small, but nonetheless real, risk of developing a more serious asbestos-related condition.
Members do not have to have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease to register with the FBU asbestos register. Nor do they need to have absolute proof that they were exposed. It’s important that the FBU has as many names as possible on the register to help those that are already ill or become ill in the future and need to make a claim.
If you register that information might help a former colleague. Those who register might help you.
To enter your details on the register, call 0808 100 6061 and ask for a form, or click here:
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