DARTFORD & GRAVESEND: Asbestos sufferers back awareness campaign (From This Is Local London)

DARTFORD & GRAVESEND: Asbestos sufferers back awareness campaign

7:30am Thursday 5th November 2009

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VICTIMS of asbestos-related diseases have thrown their weight behind a campaign to make tradesmen aware of the dangers in the workplace.

Beverley Towersey lost her carpenter-builder husband John in May after a six-year battle with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

Former electrician Jack Rekert was diagnosed with the same illness two years ago and has had to undergo 18 weeks of chemotherapy to shrink the cancer.

They are both backing a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) campaign to warn tradesmen across north Kent of the hidden killer asbestos.

The Asbestos: The Hidden Killer campaign is targeting workers most at risk of exposure to asbestos such as plumbers, joiners and electricians.

"It only takes one little fibre"

Mrs Towersey, of Claremont Road, Hextable, said: “I just want to get the message across that tradesmen must be really vigilant about the dangers of asbestos because it is a killer.

“Once you have got it there’s nothing you can do about it.

“John said he didn’t think people realise how dangerous it is and how little asbestos it takes to start the disease.

“It only takes one little fibre.”

Her husband came into contact with asbestos when he worked as an apprentice carpenter in Dartford in the 1960s and later as a builder for Greenwich Council.

But Mrs Towersey says people were not fully aware of its risks and so they never wore any protective clothing.

The 64-year-old said: “They weren’t told about anything, it was only years and years later that people were being made aware of wearing protective clothing, but it was too late for John and a lot of people.”

"I'll definitely die from this"

Mr Rekert, aged 62, came into contact with asbestos when he worked in a factory in 1985.

The grandfather-of-four, of Pepys Close, Northfleet, says he has recently begun to feel a new onset of pain including a dry cough and tiredness, indicating his cancer has returned.

He said: “Any tradesmen that go into buildings, especially old ones, and see a white substance and aren’t sure what it is, they should walk well away from it.”

“It’s put my life on hold. The only time I get a break is when the chemotherapy works. But it’s always in the back of your mind, is it going to flare up again tomorrow, or next week? It doesn’t go away.

“I’ll definitely die from this, every day is a bonus.

“You try and carry on as much as you can but it will get me eventually.

“They told me with treatment I would last five years plus.

“It’s just a waiting game.”

According to the HSE, around 20 tradesmen die every week from asbestos-related diseases across Britain, with the figure increasing, and around 500,000 non-domestic buildings contain asbestos.

It warns anyone working on a building built or refurbished before the year 2000 could be exposed to asbestos without even knowing it.

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