UK health agency criticized for destroying asbestos records
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has come under fire for its policy to destroy paper and even electronic files of asbestos abatement work after seven to nine years. Proponents of improved compensation for asbestos victims charge that the HSE’s document retention policy denies many mesothelioma victims evidence of their asbestos exposure, resulting in delayed compensation and payouts from taxpayers instead of insurance companies.
School teachers with the disease are especially affected. One teacher, a 58-year-old woman diagnosed with mesothelioma a year ago, was unable to secure files about abatement projects at the school where she worked several years prior, and cannot determine whether licensed or unlicensed asbestos abatement contractors did the work. It is estimated at least 178 UK teachers died from asbestos cancer between 1980 and 2005, caused by heavy use of asbestos in schools built between 1945 and 1974.
To learn more, read the editorial in The Daily Mirror.
