Asbestos concerns raised for health workers in ‘dilapidated’ hospitals

Concerns have been raised for those who work in hospitals as figures show they could be three times more likely to develop asbestos-related mesothelioma.

The statistics come after the Daily Mail launched a campaign to highlight the worrying amount of asbestos in Britain’s public buildings earlier this month.

According to research carried out by the news outlet, 90 per cent of hospitals contain asbestos, and with the ongoing, dilapidated state of the buildings, healthcare staff are three times more likely to develop the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma than the general public. 

In an article published this week, the Daily Mail shared a story about a junior doctor who died after contracting mesothelioma. She was working at XX at the time when the Great Storm of 1987 hit, causing asbestos dust to shower over her.

The hospital was undergoing renovations at the time, but due to the bad weather, winds tore away the protective plastic sheeting which led to asbestos fibres infiltrating the air.

Speaking to the news outlet, her husband John Blunt, 64 said:

“Back then, it wasn’t unusual for junior doctors to work three nights on the run, and I would visit her, taking her something to eat or just cheering her up.

“The dust was so thick that I could draw lines on the windows with my finger. And then the cleaners came along, sweeping it all away in clouds. I was only there briefly, but Janet was exposed for days. Of course, we can’t be completely sure that was the single incident that would go on to kill her, but it seems very likely.”

Dr Leese died aged just 57 in 2014 from mesothelioma, a cancer affecting the mesothelium, a membrane surrounding the lungs, heart and intestines. In the vast majority of cases, the lungs are worst affected.

It can take 20-60 years between exposure to asbestos fibres and the appearance of symptoms – usually chest pains, coughing and breathlessness caused by a build-up of fluid on the lungs.

But unfortunately, Dr Leese’s story is not a one off, as a nurse who trained in Leeds also died in similar circumstances. Andrea Jubb, 53, was a midwife at Barnsley Hospital for thirty years before falling ill in July 2022. She died just six weeks later.

“We’d been to Silverstone for a few days to watch the racing, and we’d done a lot of walking,” says her husband, Phil, 57.

“When we got home, she said she was feeling very tired but so was I so we didn’t think much of it. She was going through the menopause and, as a nurse, she put the symptoms – fatigue, high temperature and so on – down to that.”

However, Andrea collapsed and was admitted to hospital where mesothelioma went undiagnosed until after she died. Her death certificate records sepsis as the cause, but according to media reports, test results that came in after her death found she had mesothelioma.

Asbestos-related illness

According to the Office for National Statistics, 177 NHS staff died from mesothelioma between 2002 and 2015.

But last year, Dr Allmark made a Freedom of Information request to NHS Resolution, which deals with claims of negligence against the health service, and found that between 2013 and 2022, 360 mesothelioma claims were made against the NHS.

Given that each mesothelioma claimant will die because the disease is always fatal, this suggests a much higher rate than the official figures imply.

The charity Mesothelioma UK says that, counter-intuitively, many health workers are unaware of the risks associated with asbestos.

Kim Sunley, head of health, safety and wellbeing at the Royal College of Nursing, says:

“We’ve been working really hard to raise awareness of asbestos among our members because we think people believe asbestos, and the diseases it causes, is a thing of the past.

‘If you go into hospitals, you will see asbestos warning stickers where ceilings are crumbling, or where there are leaks, near rotting window frames or windowsills. We’ve been educating staff – especially younger members whose generation may have never heard of asbestos – to avoid it, how to report it, and how to stay safe.

“But we shouldn’t be in this position, and until the Government finally sits up and takes notice, hospital workers will continue to die.”

Asbestos-related illness is the biggest industrial killer in the UK

Asbestos-related illness is the biggest industrial killer in the UK, with at least 5,000 people a year dying from it, more than half from mesothelioma. Others suffer from asbestosis, a hardening of the lungs, or from lung cancer.

For decades, the official policy of successive governments has been to leave asbestos where it is if sealed in voids, painted over or not degraded and shedding fibres.

But since tens of thousands of hospitals, schools and other public buildings are now being used beyond their intended lifespans and are in a poor state of repair, campaigners argue this policy should be abandoned. The UK has the highest mesothelioma mortality rate in the world with

60 per million in men and 13 per million in women. In the US, the rate is less than nine per million.

The result is a death toll equivalent to one Grenfell fire tragedy every five days.

Further reading

Mesothelioma/Asbestos claims – Oakwood Solicitors

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