Leading Asbestos Lawyer Welcomes Lung Cancer Ruling
Asbestos, lung cancer link established
A leading north east industrial illness lawyer has welcomed a High Court ruling that has drawn a strong link between lung cancer and asbestos exposure.
A case between lung cancer sufferer John Joseph Shortell, who died on 8 July 2006 aged 74, and his former employer (BICAL Construction Ltd) is believed to be the first example of a successfully-contested case, establishing that exposure to asbestos caused lung cancer.
Roger Maddocks, partner and leading industrial illness expert at law firm Irwin Mitchell, said the outcome of the case, which was heard in Manchester High Court, would have huge implications for lung cancer sufferers throughout the UK who have been exposed to asbestos.
Mr Shortell – who had also smoked until the age of 53 – had been exposed to asbestos for the majority of his working life (around 23 years) while working for the defendant, at a number of power stations, as an electrical jointer, working closely with laggers as they handled asbestos.
The judge (Mr Justice Mackay) ruled that the exposure to asbestos more than doubled the claimant’s risk of developing lung cancer and the fact that Mr Shortell smoked, he said, did not impact on the negligence and breaches of duty that the defendant showed over many years.
Roger Maddocks welcomed the ruling: “This is incredibly significant and very good news for anyone who suffers from lung cancer and who has been exposed to unsafe levels of asbestos”.
“There is concern that asbestos exposure is not taken fully into account in many lung cancer cases but this case has drawn an unmistakeably strong link between the two.
“Although the claimant was an ex- smoker, his employers repeatedly breached their duty of care towards him by exposing him to asbestos during his work and the claimant’s contributory negligence, by reason of his past smoking habit, was rated at only 15 per cent. It is the first such case ever to succeed on behalf of a lung cancer sufferer who did not also have asbestosis.”