Plymouth law firm Wolferstans Solicitors has started an investigation into whether a Plymouth man who died in 2019 was exposed to asbestos at work.
The family of Des Winters would like to trace his former colleagues in Plymouth to find out if any of them were exposed to asbestos whilst working alongside their loved one.
Mr Winters died in December 2019 after being diagnosed with pleural thickening, an asbestos-related disease, during his lifetime. After his death, fibrosis of the lungs as a result of asbestos exposure, known as asbestosis, was also discovered. It is thought he had been exposed to asbestos dust.
During his working life he was employed as a brush hand at the Plymouth Gasworks in Keyham/Devonport between 1952 and 1958. Later he was employed as a gas worker for British Gas Southwest Corporation, also known as GloGas, at Cattedown, between 1969 and 1989.
Mr Winters also worked for many years at the Oreston gasworks, in Plymouth, which he described as being a “ghost station”, only operational for back-up supply.
At the time Mr Winters worked in the gas industry it was nationalised and his family has now engaged lawyers at Plymouth firm Wolferstans Solicitors to investigate whether Mr Winters could have been exposed to asbestos.
Layla Batchelor, a chartered legal executive who specialises in industrial disease and asbestos litigation in Wolferstans’ specialist asbestos team, said: “We would be grateful to hear from any former gas workers who worked at these sites, particularly if they remember Des, so that we might help his family.”
The investigation is running alongside another at the same firm, with Liz Makin, senior solicitor in Wolferstans’ specialist asbestos team, seeking to hear from laggers who worked in Devonport Dockyard’s asbestos store, after being instructed to bring an action by a former employee.
Storeman Peter Jeffery, who lives in Saltash in Cornwall, was diagnosed with asbestosis at the end of 2019. He worked at Devonport dockyard from 1960 to 1975, years before it was privatised, but, unlike many with asbestos disease, he was not generally on board the ships being refitted.
Instead, he worked in the asbestos stores for about three years in the late 1960s, where he claims it was exposed to significant levels of asbestos dust.
Layla Batchelor can be contacted on 01752 292235 or lbatchelor@wolferstans.com and Liz Makin can be contacted on 01752 292320 by anyone who might be able to help, or if they or a family member has been affected by asbestos disease.
