Industrial disease story shows importance of risk assessments

Risk assessments play a vital role in all businesses. The nature of the analyses differs between firms, depending on the nature of their activities. However, the central point remains the same. They exist to protect people from illness and injury. Without comprehensive health and safety risk assessments, problems can arise.

A widow's story has highlighted this point. Judy Adkins, who was married to the late Mick Adkins of 1960s Brumbeat band The Chads, noted that he died in June 2007 after contracting mesothelioma.

This is a cancer of the mesothelial cells, which make up the membrane that covers the outer surface of most of the body's organs. Around 2,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with it each year and most of those who develop it have been exposed to asbestos fibres at some point in their lives.

Mr Adkins had come into contact with the substance while working as an electrical apprentice in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 2006, he began to suffer from wheezing coughs while at work. Initially, his family thought he was allergic to dust or had asthma. However, medical tests revealed it was cancer.

Commenting on this, Ms Adkins remarked: "As soon as he was diagnosed, that was it. It was the end of his working life, and his own life. He was never going to enjoy a retirement.

"Over the following months you could see it was really beginning to affect him. He'd always be marching out in front when we went out for walks, but now he was slowing down and taking regular breaks."

She went on to point out that at the time he was exposed to asbestos, relatively little was known about the dangers associated with it. However, she suggested that, as the threat of the substance was just starting to be recognised, those who he worked for should have warned him and his colleagues.

Thankfully, these days the risk assessments completed concerning the material are comprehensive and firms that do not conduct the relevant health and safety risk assessments are subject to legal action.

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