Be afraid! Be very afraid! (Asbestos fear for workers)

HUNDREDS of workers who helped build Yorkshire’s power stations are facing an “asbestos timebomb”, experts claim.

Many of those who built or worked in the plants have developed asbestosis or methothelioma, a type of lung cancer caused by asbestos.

Compensation cases are growing by the week, but with no cure, hundreds of men previously employed at plants including Drax and Eggborough now face a life sentence. At the time they were built, asbestos was commonly used as insulation for pipework.

John Ullathorne is a former power station worker who has been told he has just eight years to live after developing terminal asbestosis.

He devoted nearly 20 years’ service to the power station as a lagger, cladding the plant in the potentially deadly asbestos fibres.

After developing the disease, Mr Ullathorne, 69, of Mulberry Avenue, Moorends, eventually won a £110,000 compensation pay-out four years ago.

But Mr Ullathorne said no amount of money could compensate for his poor health.

“It could have been a million but it wouldn’t make any difference. The result would be still the same. I can’t go anywhere.” he said.

And the grandfather has warned that the asbestos which blighted his life, could still affect workers for years to come.

“There is no way that they could take all that asbestos off the power station. It’s too big a job. The only way would be to shut the place down.

But it was not just the contractors who Mr Ullathorne believes could have been in danger.

“They employed women to clean our overalls to get all the dust off. They were handling it all the time.” he added.

Solicitor Howard Bonnett is dealing with a rapidly increasing caseload of claims.

He said: “It sounds melodramatic to say we’re sat on an asbestos timebomb, but we are.

“The truth is epidemiologists tell us there will be a spike in the number of people diagnosed with asbestos disease reaching until 2020, and it could still be trailing off until 2047.

“This is a malignant disease for which there’s no cure. Death is often rapid as the fibrotic damage rots the lungs – I’ve seen some extremely harrowing cases.

“It’s not only the workers but their families who bear the brunt of caring for them and, sometimes, develop the disease themselves from asbestos on work clothes.”

The firm Mr Bonnett works for – York-based Corries Solicitors Limited – is dealing with hundreds of cases. But securing payouts is an extremely complicated process.

Mr Bonnett added: “Most of the power stations are being proactive, but tracing contractors and getting them to admit liability is very difficult.

“Insurers are challenging the right to compensation, not only for plaques (scarring of the lining of the lungs] but also for pleural thickening (thickening of the lining between the lungs and the rib cage] and asbestosis where there’s no disability, leaving many men in a state of limbo.”

Mr Bonnett said: “The legacy of asbestos exposure will live. The advice is to make sure you talk to your family and friends about it. Seek suitable medical advice if you have problems, and get proper union or legal advice.”

A Drax Power spokeswoman said: “Drax Power isn’t in a position to comment on this case, which predates its ownership of Drax Power Station.”

Eggborough Power Station was unavailable for comment. –Alex Vessey, http://www.thornegazette.co.uk