Mr E, Electrician

Posted: 10th Apr 17 1:41 PM

Mr E was diagnosed with mesothelioma in his early 60s. We became involved in the case in 2011 following the diagnosis.

Mr E had been employed at Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in the early 1970s and also by a local Council from the mid 1970s. He was exposed to asbestos by both employers.

At Swan Hunter he worked on new build ships, securing electrical cables to trays with copper clips. The work was performed mainly in corridors and cable runs, and the areas were always dusty. There were asbestos lagged pipes in these areas and in the course of his work Mr E disturbed the dust that was lying about on top of the asbestos pipes.

At the Council Mr E was employed as an electrician and general maintenance person. Most of his work was in schools, including the boiler rooms where pipes were lagged with asbestos. The boiler rooms were very dusty and in the course of his work he would brush up against the asbestos lagged pipes disturbing asbestos dust. During school holidays he was employed to re-wire schools which entailed stripping out old cables and pipes, and renewing them all. Again this exposed him to asbestos dust which became airborne when lagged pipework was disturbed.

Mr E was also employed doing general installation and maintenance work in public buildings. He did much re-wiring work, removing light fittings or fitting additional circuits. He had to lift out ceiling tiles and had to throw cables across the void. There was a lot of dust disturbance in this job and as asbestos was a common material used in ceiling tiles he was further exposed to asbestos fibre.

Settlement was obtained during Mr E’s lifetime in 2012 for the sum of £245,000.