Bristol Company in Hot Water Over Asbestos Compensation Claim

bristol | miscellaneous | news report Tuesday May 29, 2012 15:13 by Jim Loxley - http://www.my-compensation.co.uk jim at my-compensation dot co dot uk

A woman has claimed almost £300,000 in an asbestos compensation claim after her husband, an ex employee of Bristol Water PLC, died from mesothelioma.

A woman from Somerset is due to receive £290,000 from a compensation claim made against Bristol Water PLC for the death of her husband. The man died from mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer which he contracted as a direct result of coming into contact with the hazardous material in the company’s pumping stations. Jean Bean lives in Shepton Mallet in Somerset and launched the compensation claim following the death of her husband, David, last year. The man was 73 years of age. David Bean had previously been employed by Bristol Water PLC of Bridgewater Road and was a electronics engineer for the company between the years of 1953 and 1992.

As part of his job description, Mr Bean maintained the pumping stations and dealt with installation and maintenance of plant equipment. Mr Bean’s solicitor stated that the financial settlement will go towards compensating Mrs Bean for the loss of her husband's income which was sustained as result of his death. The expert asbestos solicitor stated that Mr Bean was visiting pumping stations all over the Western area of the UK. The stations contained large boilers, some of which were the size of houses and all of which were covered in asbestos cement.

Mr Bean was inhaling dust and air contaminated with the material as he walked around the pumping stations and was never offered protective masks or clothing until he left the company in 1992. Locations which the man visited included West Compton Plumbing Station, Windsor Hill Treatment Works and Victoria Pumping Station. The company's headquarters is on Telephone Avenue. Mr Bean’s healthy was fine up until around September 2010, around which time he developed coughing, chest pains and breathlessness. He was later diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer which takes up to 60 years to properly develop. Mr Bean's case is one of a rising number of compensation claims being initiated for the disease, as we reach the critical time period from a part of history which saw asbestos widely used in UK industry.