Deadly asbestos is wiping out an entire family one by one

We worked hard all our days…now we’re paying with our lives.

Four workmen from the same close-knit family are being “killed off one by one” after being exposed to deadly asbestos.

The tradesmen would come home from work, their overalls matted in white powder from the seemingly harmless lagging they had been working with.

Now the silent killer has claimed two members of the Glass family leaving another pair with a daily, excruciating battle to draw breath.

It is a terrifying example of how prevalent exposure to the material has been in workplaces across Scotland and northern England, said retired electrician and sufferer Charlie Glass last night.

“Now as a family we’re being killed off one by one,” said terrified Charlie, 68.

He and cousin Tommy struggle to breathe because of pleural plaques linked to asbestos exposure, a deadly legacy of an honest life working unknowingly with the material.

He has already watched brother Tommy and cousin George, die from their exposure after getting the asbestos mesothelioma lung cancer. George was 80, Tommy only 63.

All worked unflinchingly with the lethal material, used to construct thousands of buildings in the last century. But what they didn’t know was exposure meant almost certain death.

Cancer-causing asbestos fibres have lain dormant in their lungs for years, striking years later and developing into cancer.

“It has picked us off, stealing precious years of our lives,” said Charlie, of Bridgeton, Glasgow.

“We spent long years working hard to bring up families while placing trust in our employers and the Government to protect us.

“But we have ended up victims of secrecy which shrouded hundreds of workplaces throughout the country.

“The first warnings about asbestos were given out in 1906 in a Parliamentary report but employers never protected workers or told them about the dangers.”

His late brother Tommy, who was a joiner and dad-of-two and grandad of six, died in 2011.

“He helped build the operating theatre at Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary with asbestos panels,” said his sister Margaret Jaconelli, 56, from Dalmarnock, Glasgow.

“But we believe Tommy was first exposed to asbestos when he was just 21 and became a ticking time bomb from then.

“His doctors told us that the asbestos had taken 20 years off his life. Tragically, our story is one which affects hundreds across the country.”

And exposure to deadly asbestos isn’t just an historic problem.

Just last week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed construction workers and tradespeople could come into contact with asbestos more than 100 times a year.

And while there is a growing clamour for firm action to tackle the lethal legacy, any steps will come too late for the Glass family.

Proud hard-working George had a particularly distressing end to his life.

He died in August last year aged 80, gasping for breath. He was a plasterer who worked for Glasgow City Council, then Glasgow Corporation.

His sister, Lilly, 75, from Cumbernauld, said: “It was a nightmare watching George fight for his life. He didn’t deserve to go the way he did.

“He used to come home from work with his clothes covered in white asbestos after working on houses and other council-owned buildings. His last days were spent struggling to breathe and it’s a horrible way to go.”

His brother Tommy, 80, a former plumber, now living in Weymouth, Dorset, was hit with the diagnosis of pleural plaques five years ago. Now he struggles to walk and draw breath.

He said: “I used to love to walk but I began to gasp for air and now have to rely heavily on inhalers. I was exposed to asbestos in hospitals, power stations, and many other places because thousands of pipes were lagged in it.

“You would even cut through asbestos wall boards to get to the pipes. It was painful to watch my brother die because of it and now four of us have been affected. The first warnings were given decades ago but the workers were never told.

“If we knew back then what was going to happen to us we wouldn’t have touched it. Some paid with their lives and others are battling to survive it.”

Tommy’s sister Janice Swales, 63, from Cambuslang, Glasgow, is aghast a generation of men have been sentenced to such cruel deaths.

She said: “All my brothers started out as apprentices in Glasgow but, like thousands of others, they became victims of indifference and neglect.”

The family’s law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has settled thousands of cases for asbestos victims.

Major injuries specialist Laura McCallum, who works in their Glasgow office, said: “Mesothelioma is an asbestos-related cancer for which there is sadly no cure.

“Unfortunately Thomas’ and Charles’ cases are not isolated and it’s always sad to learn of such exposure to asbestos when, in the 1960 and 70s, employers knew of the risk associated with the dangers of inhaling the lethal dust.

“We are acting for the family. No amount of money can make up for the illness and death suffered by the Glass family. Settlements will provide them and their loved ones with some financial security for the future.”

Margaret Jaconelli fears for the lives of today’s young workers.

“So many buildings were made from asbestos and it’s still a risk to tradesmen carrying out work on them,” she warned.

“Can we be sure that the workers are always protected? Entire families have already been torn apart because of people simply wanting to work hard and do their part for society. We need to make sure the current workers don’t succumb to the same fate.”