Families win BBC payments over 11 asbestos cancer deaths | BBC

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The BBC has paid £1.64m in compensation for the deaths of 11 former employees who died of cancer after working on asbestos-infested corporate buildings, the Observer has revealed.

It has made payments to the families of makeup artists, engineers, farmers, crew builders, studio managers, and television producers. All 11 died of mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos.

They worked at no fewer than 18 BBC locations, including Broadcasting House in central London, Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham and the Television Center in White City, west London, based for decades until 2013.

The list also includes Bush House, the former base of BBC Radio World Service, and Alexandra Palace, both in the capital. The latter is known as the “Birthplace of Television”), and is an essential part of BBC history because the company made its first television broadcasts from there in 1936.

The BBC admitted in response to a Freedom of Information request from the Observer. We sought details of settled cases after we revealed last year that she was facing potential compensation claims from relatives of former members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) and other former employees who worked in asbestos-containing venues.

The broadcaster said it had paid £1,637.501 in compensation over the past decade to settle claims involving nine men and two women, who worked for it between 1959 and 1998. They were not named.

The Daleks and their operators are on the set of Doctor Who, one of the programs worked on by site builder Richard Evans, who died of mesothelioma. Photography: Jane Bowen/The Observer

“The payments for these deaths show that asbestos remains a major threat,” said Liz Darlison, chief executive of the Mesothelioma Foundation UK, who is also a part-time NHS nurse. “Many people don’t realize that 95% of our hospitals and 85% of our schools still contain some asbestos and that asbestos is a carcinogen that causes mesothelioma.

“It’s a horrific disease. More than half of people die within a year of diagnosis — a shocking statistic,” Darleson added. About 2,700 people per year in the UK are diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Some of the 11 also worked at the Dickinson Road Studios in Manchester and the former BBC Scotland headquarters on Queen Margaret Drive in the West End of Glasgow as well as at Presay, in the Shetland Islands, and on Ascension Island, on the World Service’s Atlantic Raleigh station.

The BBC said: “It is not possible to confirm whether individuals were exposed to asbestos while working on BBC sites and, if so, for what period this exposure may have occurred.”

In 2006 the BBC warned current and former employees and freelancers about exposure to asbestos in studios TC2, TC3 and TC5 at the now defunct Television Center between 1990 and 2005., potentially resulting in human exposure.

The Observer reported last year how the family of Christopher Larkin, a trumpeter with the BBC or who died of mesothelioma, sued the BBC. The BBC has admitted responsibility for the musician’s death, and an investigation concluded that he “died from the consequences of exposure to asbestos”. He trained for 36 years at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in London, which was later found to contain asbestos, some broken and exposed. The building is set to close, and alternative studios are being built in Olympic Park in East London.

We’ve also revealed how the BBC has admitted exposing Richard Evans, maker of sets for shows including a doctor who died of mesothelioma, to asbestos during his 23 years making the company’s drawing and painting sets. He worked primarily at the Television Center but also in other locations across the UK and routinely used Artex, a textured coating that until the mid-1980s was made from white asbestos. His widow Valerie also filed a lawsuit.

Harminder Pines, a lawyer for the Larkin and Evans families and other former BBC employees who died of mesothelioma, said she suspected company employees’ exposure to asbestos far more than those in the 11 settled lawsuits.

“While the BBC may have only settled 11 cases, I don’t think it exposed only 11 people to asbestos.

There must be hundreds if not a few thousand people [who were] It was exposed to asbestos by the BBC, given the number of sites but also the number of years the asbestos has been at the BBC sites for a long time,” said Bynes, partner at Lee Day Solicitors.

The British House of Commons’ Work and Pensions Select Committee is conducting an investigation into asbestos, chaired by former Labor Party minister Stephen Thames. Wednesday’s final evidence session will see MPs test chief health and safety chiefs as well as Chloe Smith, secretary of state at the Department of Work and Pensions.

Charles Pickles, an asbestos consultant turned activist, has warned that many schools still contain amosite, also known as brown asbestos, and is a danger to staff and students because it is the form of asbestos found in the lungs of 98% of people who develop mesothelioma. . “Amosite is clearly a killer, yet it is still built in our public buildings.”

A BBC spokesperson said: “We would like to extend our continuing sympathy to the families of all those affected.

“The health and safety of BBC staff and everyone who uses BBC premises is of primary concern. The BBC manages asbestos in accordance with applicable regulations and legal requirements.”

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