Candy Factory Worker Sickened by Asbestos

October 9, 2006 - A woman from Yorkshire, England, who spent decades working for a candy factory in nearby Sheffield, believes she’s developed pleural plaques from her employment at the sweets company.

Ann Howe, age 62, who worked for Trebor Bassett company for 30 years beginning in 1967, alleges that she was exposed to dangerous asbestos while cleaning the factory and sweeping its floors, jobs for which she volunteered in order to earn extra pay to support her family.  Her regular jobs at the plant ranged from general factory worker to machine operator to serving tea in the canteen, reported the Yorkshire Post.

Trebor Bassett is a giant in the candy industry in England, producing such British favorites as fruit gums and Liquorice Allsorts.  They also own the Cadbury label, whose chocolate candy is famous worldwide.

"I was stunned when the chest consultant told me I had an asbestos-related illness and, when he explained the time it takes to become apparent, it fits with when I was working at the factory,” how told the Yorkshire Post.  "There was always a lot of dust around when we cleaned the factory and some of it was in the air. I can’t think of any other way in which I may have been in contact with asbestos.”

Lawyers for Mrs. Howe said she became concerned when her daily life was affected by extreme breathlessness, which even caused her to move to a less hilly section of Yorkshire.  They report that a chest X-ray showed she was suffering from diffuse pleural thickening, a lung condition caused only by inhalation of asbestos fibers.

"It is a frightening thought that, by volunteering to do overtime by cleaning the factory, Ann Howe may unwittingly have been ingesting fibers which have led to her present, highly-unpleasant illness but the timing fits and we know that asbestos was present on site,” said attorney Dominic Collingwood.