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Hairdressers Die from Mesothelioma After Working in Salons for Years
By asbestoshub | May 22, 2008
A UK hairdresser died from exposure to asbestos after working in a hair salon for 33 years, an inquest has heard. Carol Heaton, died at age 60 after contracting malignant mesothelioma in what is thought to be the first cancer case in the UK with a possible link to hair salon equipment.
The Health and Safety Laboratory already tested emissions from heating elements in hair salons which used to be insulated with asbestos and concluded there was “no appreciable risk.”
But Mrs. Heaton somehow developed the killer disease in which cancer cells are found in the sac lining the chest.
The majority of victims contract the disease by breathing in asbestos through their work. A medical expert on asbestos-related diseases testified at Mrs. Heaton’s inquest that he had never come across a case like it.
Mrs. Heaton had otherwise never knowingly been exposed to asbestos but rapidly declined in health after being diagnosed with the disease in 2007.
Consultant histopathologist Dr. Kim Suvarna said an autopsy revealed that although the victim had no obvious long-term exposure to asbestos in her job, nevertheless she had a low level of asbestos fibres in her body and she had been exposed to asbestos
Dr. Suvarna said asbestos was still commonplace in everyday life, particularly in industrial areas. The disease regularly appears in later life after exposure.
Research in the United States has shown no apparent link between mesothelioma and hairdressing.
The doctor told the inquest: “It is more likely that this person would have been exposed to asbestos from some time accidentally rather than a consequence of the occupation.”
He said if working in hair salons was a significant factor he would be seeing more cases of women with mesothelioma and a steady trickle of hairdressers. He said asbestos was present in hair salons on a daily basis but no hairdressers should have Mrs Heaton’s degree of lung contamination. She ran her own hair salon from 1962 to 2006 with a break of just 11 years.
The married victim, a smoker with little medical history, first showed signs of the disease in May, 2005 and then developed breathlessness and chest pains. Doctors treated her with radiotherapy and chemotherapy but it proved unsuccessful and she died in 2007.
Assistant deputy coroner Donald Coutts-Wood said: “We could all just be walking down the street and breathe in the asbestos fibres and it could be 20 or 30 years later before mesothelioma occurs.”
The above article was in The Daily Mail Online, a UK publication. However, it appears that more than one hairdresser in the UK has contracted mesothelioma, and speculation continues about the old hairdryers.
The Yorkshire Post, another UK publication, reported in May 2008 that UK hairdresser Janet Watson died the day before her wedding of asbestos-related cancer after years of inhaling the dust from old-fashioned hairdryers.
She was exposed to the deadly dust from the lining of hood hairdryers for more than 12 hours a day for almost 10 years. Ms. Watson started work as an apprentice in a hairdresser’s in 1960 when she was just 15 and worked for the next nine years in an environment where they would put on the hairdryers as soon as they walked in on a morning, and generally they would only then be turned off when they finished for the day.
Although Ms. Watson continued to use similar old-style hairdryers for some years after, it is believed her constant exposure to asbestos between 1960 to 1969 was the main cause of her death. An inquest in Bradford this week heard that asbestos fibres found in her lung were over and above the normal background levels, and that she had died of mesothelioma. A verdict of industrial disease was returned.
The general secretary of the National Hairdressers Federation said hairdressers and customers should not panic. He said: “Asbestos is not used in modern hairdryers and has not been used in any European models since the end of the Second World War.”
Let’s hope not.
Topics: Exposure |
October 15th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Asbestos was used in salon hood hairdryers in the UK until 1992 by most hairdryer manufacturers including the top British, Dutch and German brands. I service salon hairdryers for a living and I still find asbestos regularly in hairdryers.
David Kemper, Midland Dryer Services UK
October 17th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
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