Rochdale asbestos victims to attend cancer awareness day

Asbestos victims and campaigners from Rochdale will be attending a Raising awareness of mesothelioma event in Manchester this Friday (2 July 2010)

The meeting has been described by Save Spodden Valley campaigner Jason Addy as ‘very fitting’ as Rochdale was the birthplace of the asbestos industry at the Turner Newall site in Spodden Valley.

Rochdale was where Nellie Kershaw was identified as the first ‘asbestosis’ death in 1924.

The event will focus on terminal asbestos cancer, named, mesothelioma. Documents from Turner Newall reveal their first mesothelioma victim was another Rochdale TBA worker - William Pennington in 1936.

Mr Addy said: “Today over 2000 people die each year in the UK of mesothelioma - the trend is still rising. Deaths occur as a result of exposure to asbestos many decades before, usually 20-40 years. There is no cure for mesothelioma - it is considered a very cruel disease but also a lottery as to who exposed to asbestos may succumb to it.

He added: “The Health and Safety Executive confirm there is no known safe threshold level for exposure to the microscopic asbestos fibres - that is why the plans for an ‘urban village’ on the former Turner's site have met with such concern and opposition in Rochdale and throughout the world.

Mr Addy concluded: “Friday's event will be to mark those deaths and to aim for positive solutions to ensure future generations are kept safe from asbestos - once a ‘magic mineral’ but now undoubtedly a ‘killer dust’.