Rail worker gets asbestos payout

A former British Rail worker has been awarded £180,000 in compensation after developing the incurable asbestos cancer mesothelioma.

Rail worker gets asbestos payout A former British Rail worker has been awarded £180,000 in compensation after developing the incurable asbestos cancer mesothelioma. ASLEF member Kenneth Chapman, 74, worked for New Southern Railway, part of British Rail, from the 1950s until he retired in 1996. He was exposed to asbestos while working as a fireman, boiler cleaner and train driver. Asbestos was used on the boilers and pipes in the locomotives. Mr Chapman recalled asbestos dust being thrown into the air when a train he was in crashed into a buffer. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January 2007. Mr Chapman said: 'I have had a good life. But if someone caused this disease then they should pay for it. The employer let us work in those conditions and failed to make us aware of what it can do to our health.' ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said: 'We will continue to fight to ensure asbestos victims, like Mr Chapman, receive full compensation for the injuries they have suffered through merely carrying out a hard day's work. It is only right that these victims are compensated by their employers' insurers for the hardship caused through being exposed to asbestos.