Memorial to Derbyshire Victims of Asbestos

The Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team (DAST) has won a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project which will record the ways in which asbestos has affected workers in a variety of industries and their families. The project aims to record the myriad uses to which asbestos was put from 1945 until 1999 when new use of asbestos was banned in the UK.

Derby and the surrounding district is just one region of the UK which has seen a high number of its inhabitants succumb to asbestos related illnesses, particularly those who worked at the Derby railway works and in power stations in the region, where asbestos was widely used in the past.

Through victims contributing their stories and photographs, it is hoped that public awareness of the price these workers and their families have paid will be heightened. The project also aims to highlight the ongoing risk posed by asbestos, through its continued presence in buildings in the UK today. Encouraging though it is to know this worthy project is being undertaken, it’s sad that it is needed and that numbers of victims of asbestos are still on the rise in 2016.