Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC)

Review of Asbestos related-diseases. July 2005.

 

Some encouraging news:  the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council (IIAC) report reviewing the prescription of diseases attributable to exposure to asbestos, Command Paper Cm 6553 ‘Asbestos-related diseases’ will be laid before Parliament, by 10.30am Thursday 14 July, after which it will be available on the IIAC Website:  www.iiac.org.uk

 

OEDA’s October 2002 papers on the diagnosis of asbestos-related lung cancer and mesothelioma were submitted to the IIAC by Michael Clapham MP Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Safety & Health Group.

 

We hope the IIAC has recognised in their report that :

 

1)       lung cancer can occur without accompanying asbestosis.

 

2)       methods of counting asbestos fibres and asbestos bodies are unreliable          

due to the false negative rate, and so can be misleading.

 

3)       there is no technique or stain that will distinguish with certainty between mesothelioma

and adenocarcinoma.

 

4)       pleural plaques can cause shallow breathing.

 

5)       the asbestos which can trigger mesothelioma in the employed, the self-   employed and those with environmental exposure has all been imported by industry yet industrial benefits are paid only to employed earners. Why?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                             Nancy Tait MBE Hon DUniv