Braille Live

A very bad deal for asbestos victims

Anthony Coombs and James Thompson

Summary

Mesothelioma is an invariably fatal cancer usually of the lining of the lung or abdomen. It is nearly always caused by asbestos and in particular by the “amphibole” blue and brown asbestos, which were mined in the Northern Cape and Northern Province of South Africa for many years. This association was first described by Dr Christopher Wagner in a seminal article in 1960, based on his research in the Northern Cape. In Britain there is a long-established tradition of suing employers for asbestos-related diseases.
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