It’s common knowledge that asbestos is
now banned from use as a building material.
However, it can still be present in buildings constructed before 2000
– otherwise, there would be very little need for services such as
asbestos
removal and asbestos
surveying.
One recent news story that unfortunately serves as evidence of the
continued problem of asbestos exposure took place in Runcorn,
Cheshire.
A disused building known as East Lane House –
formerly an office block – was paid a visit by a group of youths
last week. Unbeknown to them, the building was contaminated with
Asbestos
Removal.
Emergency services were called to the scene just
before 10 in the morning after the youths
were spotted by a passerby. Five fire
engines from the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service were
accompanied by paramedics with dust masks
and a policeman on a bicycle conducting a perimeter search around the
site.
Firefighters wearing
protective equipment searched the building but found it to be empty.
The youths were eventually brought down from the roof of the derelict
building, before being ‘decontaminated’ along with their
rescuers.
Oddly, a similar situation occurred the previous year, when two
teenagers became lost inside the building. After being rescued by
emergency services, they were told to visit their doctors as a
precaution.
Unlikely to be widely recognised by such young people are the
devastating diseases and ailments that can result from exposure to
asbestos fibres.
The most common of these is mesothelioma, a form
of cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs and sometimes stomach,
depending on whether the fibres are inhaled
or ingested. Mesothelioma, unlike most other cancers, can take years
– or often decades - to become detectable or begin showing symptoms
in the victim. Unfortunately, this means that by the time the
sufferer is diagnosed,
it is often too late to do anything other than maximise their
quality of life.
There are far too many examples of people tragically succumbing to
this disease, one of the most recent being Norman Lea, a retired
builder from Taunton in Somerset.
Mr. Lea died in April aged 79, just days after he made a written
statement about the circumstances surrounding his diagnosis with the
disease.
Norman worked for his father’s company more than
50 years ago, dealing with the installation of Asbestos
Surveying Company
sheets for heaters.
In his statement, he also said that he performed these installations
with no protective gear or training – an all too common story among
mesothelioma sufferers.
Today, we know much more about asbestos, the
effects that it can have on the body and what can be done to reduce
the number of deaths and illnesses that it continues to cause. Please
contact Trident Asbestos Solutions
to find out more about our wide array of asbestos services.