Lawford Kidd's Blog

From 25th July, newly diagnosed victims of mesothelioma will receive help through a new support scheme, the Minister for Welfare, Lord Freud, and the Association of British Insurers have announced.

The new scheme will allow around 3,000 mesothelioma victims across the UK who are unable to claim compensation because they cannot trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer to receive approximately £300 million in payments in the first 10 years.

Although the majority of people are able to claim compensation through the employers’ liability insurance held by their employer, more than 300 mesothelioma sufferers a year currently lose out on compensation because they are unable to trace a liable employer or employers’ liability insurer.

A recent report by the AA Charitable Trust and Make Roads Safe campaign has found that nearly 40% of drivers had crashed by the time they turned 23-years-old. Around a quarter of those polled had crashed within two years of getting their driving licence.

The report calls for greater education and driving opportunities for young drivers. Edmund King, director of the AA Charitable Trust, said: “It’s no secret that new and young drivers are disproportionately represented in road crashes and we need to work together to stem this tide of carnage.

“Road safety education must be a life skill that starts at the age of three but is continually refreshed throughout life. It needs to begin many years before someone is old enough to apply for their provisional licence.

Hundreds of thousands of whiplash injuries could be prevented each year with better head restraints and seats in UK cars, according to Axa Insurance.

The company carried out research, in conjunction with motor research organisation Thatcham, into the cars on the UK's roads and estimates that only 34% have head restraints and seats that would be categorised as "good" when it comes to reducing the risk of the driver being the victim of whiplash injuries.

In the UK, 1600 claims for whiplash are made per day - 570,000 per year - costing the insurance industry £2bn per year in payouts. If 65% of these could be avoided through better head restraints and seats this could mean a reduction of 370,500 claims costing around £1.3bn.

The NHS Medical Director’s expert group, which has been looking at PiP breast implants, has published its final report.

The findings of the group include:

• Exhaustive world-wide testing of the PiP gel material has not revealed anything which could cause a long-term threat to human health – they are not toxic nor carcinogenic.
• They do, however, have a higher rupture rate – around two times higher. The rate of rupture appears to be around six to 12% after five years, rising to 15 to 30% after 10 years (this compares to 10-14% after 10 years for other brands of implants).
• PiP implants have a higher concentration of certain compounds called siloxanes – chemically similar to silicone but of a lower molecular weight and found in many consumer products, including hair and skin care products, antiperspirants and deodorants – but this does not present a health risk.
• Although the contents are not harmful and the gel has not been shown to contain any toxic substances, the inferior mechanical strength of the implants led the group to consider this a substandard product.

The expert group has said that the advice to women who have PiP implants remains unchanged. It is expected that all providers of PIP implants will contact their patients. If women are unsure of the make of their implant they should contact their surgeon or provider.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has served an Improvement Notice on an Edinburgh company for alleged failures to adequately control the risk of legionella in a cooling tower.

The Notice was served for a failure to devise and implement a sustained and effective biocide control programme in one cooling tower.

HSE visited the company as part of an ongoing investigation into a Legionnaires disease outbreak in South West Edinburgh. Visits to other companies are ongoing.