By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:45, Thursday, 04 August 2011

A Carlisle widow whose husband died from a cancer linked to asbestos is suing his former employers for compensation of more than £300,000.

Electrician Peter Walters, 63, died from malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissues surrounding his lungs, just three weeks after his condition was diagnosed. Now his widow Vivien Walters, 50, of Durdar Road, is demanding damages from Lorne Stewart plc, successors to HAT Engineering Services and David Thomson (Electrical).

Mr Walters worked for both firms, either as an employee or on self- employed basis, between 1969 and 1998 at the Barwise Works in Carlisle, according to a High Court writ.

He was exposed to asbestos during his work, including at an old people’s home Riverside in Appleby, where he installed a cord pull system and replaced lighting. This involved working in the roof voids filled with asbestos powder by contractors, who blew it in, the writ says.

Although the dust was destined for the roof void, it blew all over the premises, and he also worked in the boiler room where laggers mixed up asbestos powder with water, it is alleged. As they tipped out the asbestos, it created big clouds of dust. Mr Walters was also exposed to asbestos when he worked on Ministry of Defence facilities at Longtown, and at a site called 14MU, which involved installing new boiler houses with asbestos roofs and walls, and pipe lagging, the writ claims.

He sometimes had to cut through lagging on pipes with small hand tools, and specks of dust could be seen hanging in the air, the writ says. He and contractors often used handsaws, electrical tools, screwdrivers, and their hands to rip off lagging, and at the end of their shifts they were covered in asbestos dust.

The writ says that he worked on a refurbishment project at Cockermouth School, which involved crawling over asbestos lagged pipes underneath the gym floor, and on a project at Thames Board paper Mills where he was also exposed to asbestos.

Mrs Walters brands the companies negligent, and says they required him to work in an atmosphere of asbestos dust, failed to provide proper ventilation, or breathing apparatus, and failed to provide a safe system and place of work.

Her husband had been in excellent health until August 2009 when he consulted his GP with discomfort, followed by chest pain. A scan suggested malignant mesothelioma, and he was told of the diagnosis in January 2010, and that his condition could not be cured. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he died at the Eden Valley Hospice on January 31, 2010 after a short illness. Mrs Walters says her husband lost 20 years of life expectancy, and that without the illness he would have continued to work until he was 65, and would have continued to carry out DIY, gardening, clearing, car repairing, and general assistance to his wife.

First published at 11:26, Thursday, 04 August 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk