Pleural plaques victims lose their right to compensation

Unions and safety campaigners have reacted with anger and dismay to a Law Lords ruling that bars thousands of workers with an asbestos-related illness from claiming compensation.

For the past 20 years, people with pleural plaques — the scarring of the lung pleura caused by inhaling asbestos fibres — have received compensation for the anxiety and psychiatric illness caused by a diagnosis of the disease. Sufferers know that their condition puts them at increased risk of a fatal asbestos disease.

Tony Whitson, chair of the Asbestos Forum, called the decision “a disgrace” which “gives solace to rich insurance companies and leaves asbestos victims uncompensated”. Comparing it to another Law Lords ruling last year in which compensation to mesothelioma sufferers was withdrawn (see Labour Research, June and August 2006), he said: “Parliament overturned that decision, and we are calling on MPs of all parties to act to overturn this unjust decision.”

Pleural plaques are “a disease which affects working-class people”, he observed, adding: “It is all too easy for those who never risked their lives in industry to dismiss the suffering of so many who did.”