Mesothelioma

Yesterday, the Department of Work and Pensions apologised but did not offer a reason for the delay.His widow Julie, 51, of Mount Pleasant, Lowestoft, said: "The only people who let us down were the benefits system.

It took seven months to get his claim processed.

He got it the week he died.

"I don't think people can appreciate the devastation a terminal illness causes.

Your whole life is changed.

When a disease hits a family like that that is the last thing you need."I feel very strongly on his behalf.

I just think it is appalling when someone is terminally ill."Mrs Moore, who is a nurse, took time off work to nurse her husband and had to fight for benefits on his behalf.

She said she had trouble getting through to the Benefits Agency on the telephone, and when she did go to the Jobcentre in Lowestoft, she was told their computers had crashed.

When he was finally offered payment last month, the grandfather of four was told to cash the postal order at the post office - even though he was too ill to go out.She said: "He couldn't have had better medical care.

He was just let down by the benefits system.

When people are on their own and have no family, what do they do?

"She was speaking after yesterday's inquest in Lowestoft, at which coroner Peter Dean recorded a verdict of death from industrial disease.

The inquest heard that Mr Moore, 64, a retired pipe welder a...

Dr Clements says the new results have far-reaching consequences for liability and compensation claims.

"Other work done by actuaries predicts 2010," he said.

"It's not clear whether they made the assumption that it would peak at 2010, which I think is quite commonly held or whether they just found that it was then, so it's not entirely clear why the two models are reaching different conclusions." [ more news ] print this page Information about the use of cookies on this site ...

This disease, according to doctors at the conference, develops in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs.

Its most common target is the outer lining of the lungs and the chest cavity.

Most people who develop Held under the auspices of the Drexel University School of Public Health and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS), about 100 people turned out to listen to medical professionals, scientists, politicians and concerned citizens discuss the debilitating effects of the carcinogen.

"Like most Americans, people don't know asbestos has not been banned, but its deadly diseases are all preventable," Reinstein said.

She described kinds of afflictions often caused by asbestos, including malignant and benign diseases, citing a sum 65 percent of people exposed to asbestos develop cancerous cells in their body.

"It reduces the ability to breathe so it wreaks havoc on your heart and lungs, and lack of oxygen kills you, causing cardiac arrest," she said.

People who have been exposed to asbestos can develop symptoms in a matter or days or a matter of years.

Even those not in direct contact are at risk.

Reinstein used the example of New York City's World Trade Center collapse.

She said the nearly 400 tons of...