Rochdale Online readers invited to see asbestos TV documentary

An asbestos victim support group is helping to mark an important landmark in the history of health and safety.

It is 25 years since Yorkshire TV broadcast its groundbreaking documentary, 'Alice - fight for life'.

The programme highlighted the facts about the terminal asbestos cancer mesothelioma.

It also investigated the Rochdale Turner Brothers Asbestos (TBA) factory in the Spodden Valley. Serious allegations against Turner amp; Newall were broadcast. There were claims of a health cover-up at the Rochdale factory, which is now subject to a controversial planning application for over 600 homes and a children’s nursery.  

Within days of the showing of the documentary the Government implemented recommendations for lower dust levels in all UK factories, including the TBA site.

On Monday 15 October there is to be an event hosted by the Royal Television Society in Bradford, including a showing of the documentary.

Rochdale Online readers who wish to attend can contact GMAVSG on 0161 636 7555 or email:

• asbestos.gmavsg@virgin.net

Arrangements are being made for transport on 15 October from Rochdale to Bradford.

Tony Whitston of the Greater Manchester Asbestos Victims Support Group commented: “We often visit mesothelioma sufferers who worked at TBA in Rochdale. Had it not been for the courage of Alice and the professionalism of the Yorkshire TV documentary producer and staff, we believe we would be visiting many more mesothelioma victims in the Rochdale area today.

“The numbers of mesothelioma sufferers nationally, and in Rochdale, is appalling, and had it not been for the courage and fortitude of people like Alice, they would be worse. We hope that the record of the exposure to asbestos in many settings and factories, including Rochdale's TBA factory, which has resulted in the current mesothelioma epidemic will warn against further exposure to asbestos today."