The Asbestos Victims Forum, and local campaign group Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group, will be at the Labour Party
Conference on Sunday 8th Oct 2023 in Liverpool to alert Labour MPs to the facts around ASbestos related deaths and on the principle that Cape Must Pay for research into asbestos based illness and research for a cure so that victims who worked with asbestos will not succumb to the diseases caused by exposure to asbestos such as Mesothelioma.
Announcing their intention to attend the Conference today, AVSGF issued the following press release:
Asbestos exposure is the single greatest cause of work-related
deaths in the UK.
A 2019 legal case won by AVSGF in the Supreme Court forced Cape
to disclose documents. These proved that, from the 1960s, Cape
deliberately withheld evidence on the risks its asbestos products
posed to human life, for profit.
Mesothelioma is a terminal cancer caused by asbestos. Cape was
a leading manufacturer of asbestos products in the UK from the
1950s to the 1980s. Altrad is Cape’s ultimate parent company and
purchased Cape in 2017.
For more than a year now, we have been asking Altrad to pay £10
million towards research to find a cure for mesothelioma.
On 10th May 2023, Altrad announced on their website that they had
been awarded a major £30.8 million contract for decommissioning
and asbestos removal at Berkeley Power Station in Gloucestershire.
AVSGF has written to Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer to ask for a
moratorium on new UK public contracts being awarded to global
giant Altrad.
Families are torn apart when their loved ones die from exposure to
Cape’s asbestos products. They have to go to work to provide for
their families. Their children have to go to school, where Cape’s
asbestos products are rife. They ultimately pay with their lives,
through no fault of their own.
The removal of RAAC will lead to the disturbance of asbestos,
causing pupils & school staff to be exposed to asbestos.
The younger the age of an individual being exposed to asbestos,
the higher the risk that individual is likely to go on to develop an
asbestos cancer/disease later in life.
AVSGF will be making the following requests for action from Labour MPs in support of the current and future victims of Asbestos:
1. Sign the Early Day Motion 93 calling on Cape/Altrad to pay£10 million towards medical research to find a cure for
mesothelioma.
2. Support a moratorium on any new public contracts being
awarded to Altrad, and its subsidiaries, until Altrad’s moral
obligation to donate £10 million has been met.
3. Meet us outside the Main Entrance, ACC, King’s Dock, Liverpool
L3 4FP from 9am for a discussion/photoshoot.
4. Meet us at the fringe meeting titled “Asbestos: Time to Get Rid
of It!” at 5pm in Hall 2D, The ACC for a photoshoot/meeting with
a journalist.
The AVSGF is a national charity set up by local asbestos support
groups to campaign for the removal of asbestos and a fair deal for
its victims. More information here:
asbestosforum.org.uk
Source: AVSGF
See also:
Merseyside Asbestos Campaigners In Paris Protest Against Altrad
Asbestos Victims Support Groups Across UK Demand Cape Must Pay
Asbestos Victims Meet To Remember And Safeguard Future Generations
