“It’s extraordinary what’s going on in our area. It’s an epidemic. There’s barely a family that doesn’t have some experience of asbestos-related disease and it’s going to get worse; it’s not even at its peak yet.”[1]
In 1913 Cape Asbestos opened a factory on Harts Lane in Barking. Responsible for hundreds of deaths to this day, this is the legacy of the industrial killing machine, the community it devastated, and those who fought for justice.
Contents:
The Workers: First Hand Exposure
The Families: Environmental & Second Hand Exposure
- Proximity to the Factory
- Northbury Infant School
- Cape Close: The Harts Lane Estate
- The Construction Site
- Rita Ashdown
“Death From Natural Causes:” The Fight For Recognition and Compensation
The Harts Lane Estate is situated where the factory once stood. Source: Google Maps.
Background
Cape Asbestos, Barking
The Cape Asbestos Company was founded in 1893 and primarily mined asbestos in the Orange Free State province in South Africa. Once mined, the material was imported into European countries, where it was subsequently woven into fire-resistant materials. The asbestos trade boomed and the company grew quickly.
In 1913 they opened three factories in the London area, including a factory in Barking, to produce asbestos-based fireproof mattresses, splinter mats, civilian gas masks, gas mask filters and more. The residents of Barking and surrounding areas flocked to the factory which employed thousands of people in the area over a period of fifty six years.
Job roles at the factory were advertised as paying significantly higher rates than many other jobs in the area. In an interview by The Independent Ted Lethbridge recalled his late wife’s brief career at the factory when she was younger. He stated that whilst she had trained as a nurse, a medical career only offered her 15 shillings a week. In comparison, Cape Asbestos offered £4.[2]
His wife ultimately took the factory job, unknowingly cutting years off her life.
Concern about the factory’s fatality rate was published in local newspapers as early as 1929, yet it remained in operation until 1968, long enough to see thousands more workers exposed and thus opening up the possibility to claim for asbestos disease compensation.
As a result, the factory’s damning legacy still lives on, and those who lived in the area whilst it was operational continue to suffer in “London’s biggest asbestos death black spot.”[3] Because of the delayed affect of asbestos, it is likely that the factory’s legacy will continue to claim lives for the foreseeable future.
To this end the company has had to put aside millions of pounds (£40 million in 2006) in order to pay for the hundreds of asbestos compensation claims that have already been made, and will be made in the future. However, they have received ample criticism for not compensating those who suffer from pleural plaques, despite the fact that these individuals are 1,000 times more likely to suffer with lung cancer.
Cape Asbestos created asbestos products across the UK until the 1970s, making it a company with an extremely deadly legacy.
Despite their scarred reputation, they continue to trade today in asbestos-free products such as insulation, protection boards, scaffolding and industrial cleaning services under the trade name of Cape PLC.
Asbestos Diseases
Asbestos-related diseases kill over 107,000 people each year.[4] These diseases primarily include:
- Mesothelioma: A type of painful and incurable cancer that develops on the outer lining of some of the body’s organs. Primarily found in the lungs, this cancer is almost always developed as a result of asbestos exposure.Symptoms often do not appear until the cancer has developed significantly, so survival time is often counted in months rather than years, with an average prognosis being around 1 year from the time of diagnosis. Unfortunately, despite the UK having one of the highest mesothelioma rates in the world, research into treatment is often limited as many incorrectly believe that mesothelioma has an expiry date. Click here for more information on mesothelioma.
- Asbestosis: A severe, incurable scarring of the lungs as a result of asbestos exposure. Whilst it is benign, it can contribute to deaths and causes severe breathlessness and pain. Click here for more information on asbestosis.
- Other Diseases: kidney, ovarian, lung and laryngeal cancer can all be caused as a result of asbestos exposure. For more information on diseases caused by asbestos click here.
- Diffuse or Widespread Pleural Thickening: The thickening, calcification or scarring of the pleura (linings of the lung), mainly affecting the inner surface. This can cause significant breathlessness, chest pain and a general feeling of tightness across the chest. For more information on pleural thickening please click here.
- Asbestos-Related Lung Cancer: Lung cancer can be caused by asbestos exposure, but is sometimes overlooked as a cause because it is generally attributed to smoking. However, it is clear that asbestos scars and damages the lungs, sometimes causing this form of cancer to grow. Smoking and asbestos exposure result in a synergistic affect and when exposure to both hazards combined has occurred, the prospects of developing the condition increase. The symptoms of lung cancer include pain, breathlessness, weight loss, wheezing, a persistent cough and even blood. For more information about asbestos-related lung cancer please click here.
- Pleural Plaques Causing a Restrictive Defect on Lung Condition: Pleural plaques are an area of scarring on the thin pleural membrane surrounding the lungs. Whilst they are benign, they can sometimes become so large that they restrict breathing. At this point they can cause breathlessness and pain and asbestos compensation may be claimable. For more information on pleural plaques please click here.
Asbestos-related diseases often do not occur until many years following exposure to asbestos, meaning that people are still only just suffering as a result of the exposure they experienced thirty, forty or even fifty years ago. In 2013 alone a total of 2,538 UK residents died from asbestos related diseases.[5] This figure does not account for those who moved abroad following their exposure.
Asbestos Exposure in Barking
The Workers: First-Hand Exposure
The vast Barking factory was filled to the brim with asbestos dust. In 1930 a dust count survey was conducted at the Barking Cape Asbestos factory which revealed that even under the best conditions, a weaver was subjected to high levels of asbestos dust at 406 particles per cubic centimeter. When dust was being shoveled into bags the levels were as high as 2,356 particles per cubic centimeter. [6]
There is no known safe level of asbestos exposure. However, for comparison, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an American organisation, have set a permissible exposure level of 0.1 particles per cubic centimeter. As asbestos is not banned in America, this allows workers to work in an environment that meets this dust count standard, which is massively lower than the levels that were found at Cape Asbestos’s Barking factory.[7]
Unsurprisingly, the levels of dust created horrific breathing difficulties in the factory and the company’s attempts to combat this problem were largely unsuccessful. Whilst they installed some ventilation systems, they were inadequate and in short supply, meaning workers in some of the worst areas of the factory were exposed to harmful amounts of asbestos dust without any ventilation being in place. Whilst respiratory devices were provided they were inadequate and more likely to hinder the wearer’s breathing than help it.
No Protection
According to The Independent, workers at the Cape Asbestos factory were told that drinking ½ a pint of milk would prevent illness and were often left to work without protective equipment.[10] From our own experience dealing with asbestos claims for past clients who suffered at the hands of Cape Asbestos, we can clearly recall photographs of workers at the factories, working without protective equipment, often dressed in their own clothes. Furthermore, the workers at the factories were not advised to clean or leave their contaminated clothing in the building and so returned to their homes, often covered in thick asbestos dust.
It is clear that much of the work was undertaken without protective equipment – men would mix asbestos concrete and women would spin asbestos fibres bare handed.
Impact
The Cape Asbestos factory employed over 10,000 people whilst it was open. It is clear that people who worked in the factory began to die only fifteen years after its opening date, but it is difficult to estimate an exact number of deaths for a number of reasons.
- Misdiagnosis: Many people are likely to have died from asbestos related diseases that were not diagnosed as such, especially before asbestos was banned in the UK. Many mesothelioma/asbestosis cases were misdiagnosed as bronchitis, tuberculosis, or other respiratory diseases.
- Lack of statistics: The number of deaths from asbestos related diseases was not recorded on a national scale from the outset, especially as the asbestos lobby attempted to suppress these statistics. According to the NHS, between 1981 and 2005 186 men died from mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure in the area.[12] Many of these men would have worked in the factory. Unfortunately, the occurrence rates are likely to have considerably increased since this time. Cancer Research UK suggests that the incidence rates in the UK will increase rapidly until 2017/2018 and then diminish thereafter. This is as a result of the changing patterns of exposure to asbestos.[13] Statistics for this time are yet to be published.
- Benign Asbestosis: Asbestosis, rarely proving fatal itself, can cause excruciating pain to the sufferer, and ultimately contribute to early death as a result of the sufferer developing complications such as pneumonia. The diagnosis may simply have been missed during life, with deaths being put down to pneumonia alone for example.
Despite these factors, it is clear that Barking has one of the top 20 highest rates of mesothelioma deaths in the UK, and, unfortunately, has the highest death rate for women. Asbestos deaths are a pandemic in Barking. Barking MP Margaret Hodge labelled the asbestos-related deaths, “one of the biggest tragedies our community has experienced.”[14] The London Hazards Centre reported that people in the borough of Barking and Dagenham are more likely to be ill with a long-term disease than anywhere else in London. A 2001 census demonstrated that 19.9% of households had at least one person suffering from long term illness, which was higher than the national average of 18.2%. In 2000 the borough had the fifth highest number of men dying from cancer in the country with 800 people being diagnosed, resulting in 400 premature deaths.
The Families: Environmental & Second-Hand Exposure
For a long time, asbestos related illnesses were largely considered to be occupational diseases that affected only those who worked directly with the substance. The reality is much more tragic and asbestos claims are opened every year on behalf of people who have come into contact with asbestos as a result of second hand or environmental exposure. This may be because of their proximity to asbestos producing factories, resulting in exposure to asbestos dust in the general environment, or because they hugged a family member when they returned home covered in dangerous asbestos dust. Many other mesothelioma claims have been pursued successfully – arising out of the washing of asbestos covered clothes within the home. Regardless of how they were exposed, it is clear that in Barking and the UK in general, the effects are no less deadly.
Proximity to the Factory
In 2006 we opened a mesothelioma claim for a client whose mother had been exposed to deadly asbestos as a child. The mother had been diagnosed with incurable mesothelioma and sadly was given only two months to live. Upon investigation it became clear that her illness had been caused by the environmental exposure she had experienced as a young child.
She was born in the 1950s in Barking when Cape Asbestos was still fully operational. Various witness statements were taken in support of the mesothelioma claim with people recalling that asbestos-polluted streets, “looked like Christmas” all year round. Giant fans pumped asbestos dust out of the large factory and over the surrounding areas, where it landed in back gardens and playgrounds for adults and children alike to come into contact with.
The mother’s family, completely unaware of the danger, unfortunately moved no more than 300 yards away from the Cape Asbestos factory when she was only twelve months old. They lived in the same house for two years. In her statement she recalled playing in the thick asbestos dust which coated her back yard, “I remember that there was a lot of dust in the back yard which we used to dig in and make mud pies with.” Her brother recalled that they used to fill toy trucks with the asbestos dust and play with them happily. Such evidence was relied upon in alleging negligence on Cape’s part in the hope of securing mesothelioma compensation.
Around Christmas time in 2006, our client’s mother sadly passed away from her incurable, asbestos related cancer. Our client received the mesothelioma compensation on her behalf and she was also survived by several other children, the youngest of which was just 15 years old at the time of her death. Her tragic story mirrors many others who lived near to Cape’s Barking site.
Northbury Infant School
Northbury Infant School, which educated Barking children between the ages of four and seven, directly neighboured the factory and was subjected to the endless asbestos dust which billowed out of the sides through giant fans. The dust fell across the playground and lanes which surrounded the school. As a result the school children had very easy access to it. The Independent wrote about George Dickenson, who had died aged 76 following asbestos exposure at the school. His daughter Jane said:
“They used to collect it and bash it all together for snowball fights. As soon as he was diagnosed he knew it was from playing in it as a child. He was angry that nothing was done to protect local residents.”[16]
Cape Close: The Harts Lane Estate
Cape Asbestos’s destructive legacy did not end with the closure of it’s Barking site and subsequent demolition. In the late 1960’s the council purchased the land from Cape PLC and built numerous flats and houses on it, unfortunately disregarding the idea that the land might be contaminated. Subsequently, some people who moved into the houses, or visited loved ones in the area, were exposed to asbestos and developed asbestos related diseases in later life. When the land was dug up again between 1997 and 2003, they found asbestos dangerously close to the surface. In 2002 Jennie Duffy, the Head of Health and Consumer Services, reported that soil sampling and air monitoring was taking place on the estate and that:
“A small sample of blue asbestos has been found in one garden. It is not considered to pose any risk and the council are talking to the owner to provide any necessary help. The results of air monitoring have found nothing above the normal levels found in the atmosphere.”[17]
The Construction Site
It is known that a gentleman developed mesothelioma despite having no recollection of ever working in a place which had contained asbestos, or living near to a known asbestos site. However, he had often visited his mother-in-law during the late 1960s and 70’s at the Harts Lane Estate when intense construction work was taking place. They used to sit in their car with the windows down near to where the work was taking place and their lawyers were successful in establishing that they had inhaled asbestos dust when the contaminated soil was disturbed.
Rita Ashdown
In 2002 the BBC reported that Rita Ashdown had accepted asbestos compensation totalling £40,000 from Barking and Dagenham council after claiming that her asbestosis had developed as a result of living on Harts Lane Estate for 13 years. Sadly, she died prematurely that year, aged just 62. [18]
“Death from Natural Causes” – The Fight For Recognition & Compensation
Early Days
It was not until around fifteen years after the Cape Asbestos factory had been opened that people began to fall ill with asbestos-related diseases on mass. As the asbestos industry was legal, and very profitable, those blighted by the diseases it caused had to fight for many years for the government and companies to acknowledge that their diseases were caused as a direct result of asbestos exposure.
Not all authorities were against them. Around 1927, Dr. C.L. Williams was appointed as the Medical Officer of Health for Barking. He immediately began to discuss the issue of ‘Asbestosis,’ and in his first annual report to the Council in 1928 he wrote:
“During the year, my work at the Chest Clinic has drawn my attention to a particular disease which while resembling consumption in many ways, is not due, I feel sure, to the germs of Tuberculosis […] the possible association of this disease with industrial life has had my attention.”[19]
Subsequently, in his general report to the council in 1929 he wrote:
“We have established that many people in Barking are suffering from the disease of the lungs due to the inhalation of asbestos dust.”[20]
Despite Dr Williams’ assertion, The Chelmsford Chronicle reported in October of the same year that an inquest had ruled that a worker had not died from asbestos disease, but from natural causes:
“An inquest was held on Wednesday on Wm. Holland, aged 47, of 53 St. Awdry’s Road, Barking. Evidence has been given that the deceased had been working for the Cape Asbestos Company, Barking Since 1914. He developed chest trouble about three years ago which was diagnosed as bronchitis….Dr. McDonald said a post-mortem examination revealed that death was due to pulmonary asbestosis, a little-known disease. The coroner said it was a very complicated case, and the jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes.”[21]
It was not unusual at this time for asbestos-related deaths to be misdiagnosed as ‘bronchitis,’ ‘natural causes’ or, ‘tuberculosis.’ By 1931, fifty-seven cases of asbestosis had been reported in the London Park Hospital where many people from Barking attended for medical treatment.[22]
Definitive Evidence
In 1960 J. C. Wagner published an article in The British Journal of Industrial Medicine which strongly suggested that mesothelioma developed in the majority of cases as a result of exposure to asbestos. Worryingly, this report was distributed to Cape Asbestos who took no action. Clearly Cape were on notice that even minimal exposure to asbestos could cause mesothelioma at an early stage.
Following on from this, the 31st October 1965 is now considered to be the “date of guilty knowledge” for any employers that knowingly exposed their workers to asbestos. On this date The Sunday Times published an article on their front page documenting Newhouse and Thomson’s report in The British Journal of Industrial Medicine. The report demonstrated definitively that even low levels of asbestos exposure could cause mesothelioma.[23] Shockingly, Cape Asbestos’ Barking factory did not close until 1968.
Alice – Fight For Life
Whilst the fight for recognition of asbestos diseases and asbestos compensation continued over the next fifty years, even in the 1980s it was still proving difficult to secure asbestos disease compensation awards. In 1982 a Yorkshire TV programme produced a documentary called ‘Alice – A Fight For Life,’ which demonstrated the affects of asbestos exposure on Alice, who had briefly worked in Cape Asbestos’s Acre Mill factory (a factory situated in the North of England) when she was seventeen. In her mid forties, she developed aggressive mesothelioma, and the film briefly documents her struggle to recover an amount of mesothelioma compensation equivalent to her level of suffering. You can watch the videos below:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Asbestos Compensation Today
Legislation now exists to help people gain asbestos compensation when they develop asbestos related diseases. Receiving compensation for many is not just about the money which can help the sufferer or the bereaved families affected by their personal tragedy, it’s also about achieving a degree of justice and accountability for the wrongdoing. At Asbestos Justice we assist families in recovering the asbestos compensation they deserve which can contribute towards medical bills, funeral bills or be given to friends and family for the future. Often, to get started with your asbestos claim, all we need is information about your condition, yourself, and your work history or other information relating to how you suffered exposure to asbestos dust.
If you or a family member are suffering from an asbestos-related disease please visit: https://www.asbestosjustice.co.uk/asbestos-compensation/ or call us on: 08000386767.
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References:
[1] Emily Dugan, ‘Asbestos: A Shameful Legacy,’ The Independent, Sunday 22nd November 2009http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asbestos-a-shameful-legacy-1825554.html.
[2] Emily Dugan, ‘Asbestos: A Shameful Legacy,’ The Independent, Sunday 22nd November 2009http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asbestos-a-shameful-legacy-1825554.html.
[3] ‘Barking Asbestos Plant’s Tragic Legacy,’ Barking and Dagenham Post, April 2010, http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/barking_asbestos_plant_s_tragic_legacy_1_573328
[4] ‘The Human and Financial Burden of Asbestos in the WHO European Region: Meeting Report 5-6 November 2012, Bonn, Germany,’ World Health Organisation, http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/194133/RB-Asbestos-Mtg-Report-Bonn-2012.pdf
[5] ‘Barking Asbestos Plant’s Tragic Legacy,’ Barking and Dagenham Post, April 2010, http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/barking_asbestos_plant_s_tragic_legacy_1_573328
[6] Morris Greenberg, ‘Cape Asbestos, Barking, Health and Environment: 1928-1946,’ American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 43:109-119, (2003), p.110.
[7] ‘Worker Safety,’ Asbestos Network, http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/Worker-Safety/
[8] (Asbestosis Death, Barking), 23rd March 1939, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1939/mar/23/asbestosis-death-barking
[12] NHS Barking and Dagenham: Briefing on Diseases Linked to Asbestos in Barking and Dagenham, http://moderngov.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=23184
[13] ‘Mesothelioma Statistics,’ Cancer Research UK, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/mesothelioma#heading-One
[14] Anna Silverman, ‘Widow handed payout after Barking’s Cape Asbestos factory caused husband’s death,’ Barking and Dagenham Post, 26 June 2014, http://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/politics/widow_handed_payout_after_barking_s_cape_asbestos_factory_caused_husband_s_death_1_3657728
[16] Emily Dugan, ‘Asbestos: A Shameful Legacy,’ The Independent, Sunday 22nd November 2009http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/asbestos-a-shameful-legacy-1825554.html.
[17] ‘Agenda Item: Update on Harts Lane Estate,’ London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, http://moderngov.barking-dagenham.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=2348.
[18] ‘Pay Out For Asbestosis Sufferer,’ BBC News, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1859739.stm>.
[19] Morris Greenberg, ‘Cape Asbestos, Barking, Health and Environment: 1928-1946,’ American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 43:109-119, (2003), p.110.
[20] Greenberg, p.110.
[21] ‘Victim of Asbestos,’ The Chelmsford Chronicle, Friday 29th October 1929.
[22] Greenberg, p.111.
[23] Hill Dickinson LLP, ‘Low dose mesothelioma claims pre-1965 – where are we now?,’ Lexology, http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=fae80fab-2a1b-4bd3-bbb6-ff771b40188b