In the United Kingdom, some 6,000 persons affected by asbestos exposure in the workplace will be eligible to receive £5,000 in personal compensation under a plan which has recently been approved. While the compensation plan may seem positive on its surface, it may actually have been chosen as a sort of apologetic gesture after promises to found a multi-million pound asbestos disease research center fell through.
The compensation payments are to be distributed to those diagnosed with pleural plaque formations before October 17, 2007. Pleural plaques, or scarring of the tissues surrounding the lung, are the result of asbestos exposure and can develop into either lung cancer or mesothelioma, an aggressive and terminal cancer of the lungs’ tissue lining.
While asbestos exposure in the workplace is rapidly declining due to changing laws, increasing public outcry, and an explosion of related litigation, diagnoses of asbestos related diseases continue to rise. The disconnect between lowering exposure rates and increasing diagnoses is due to both improved diagnosis techniques and the latency of asbestos diseases, that is, the time it takes for them to develop. Mesothelioma, for example, can take twenty to fifty years to become diagnosable after initial exposure to asbestos fibers occur.
The latency of mesothelioma doesn’t just create a deceptive disconnect between asbestos regulations and diagnoses of the disease, it also delivers some sufferers into hot water when diagnosis “cut-off” dates are enforced for compensation eligibility. For example, the £5,000 compensation plan which requires a pleural plaque diagnosis prior to October 17, 2007, could in fact disqualify sufferers of asbestos related disease who were exposed to asbestos as early as the 1960′s or as late as the 1980′s.
The payout strikes some as an unsatisfactory compromise as other measures to combat asbestos related diseases have fallen through. In addition to scrapping a plan to construct a new cancer research center focused on asbestos disease, a move to provide £400 million for asbestos disease victims who are unable to discern those responsible for their exposure is floundering as well. The £5,000 payouts, however, offer some restitution to certain victims.
To receive compensation, applicants must complete a claim form and supply supporting documents which can either be sent to the defendant or their insurer. To begin the application process, sufferers of pleural plaques can call the Ministry of Justice or visit its website online.
