Former England footballer Stuart Pearce has spoken of his fear of developing mesothelioma, after spending four years working as an electrician before becoming a much-loved sports star.
52-year-old Pearce, who played for clubs including Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Coventry and Manchester City, recently spoke of his concerns of developing the asbestos-related cancer after working in the trade whilst playing part-time football, before he was snapped up to play professionally. Now, 30 years later he fears that he could be one of the thousands of tradesman and women unaware that they were being exposed to a potentially harmful asbestos dust through their work.
Pearce is backing a campaign launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is encouraging tradespeople and homeowners renovating their homes to protect themselves from the effects of the material. Although, these days there is a lot more awareness of the dangers posed by asbestos fibres and it has now been banned in building materials, the HSE estimates that as many as 1.3 million people remain at risk of developing asbestos-related illnesses.
“I was working as an electrician for four and a half years and it’s chilling to think I could have been exposed to it without knowing,” Pearce said.
“We were simply ignorant about the risks back then.
“Many people today think it’s a thing of the past but it’s not, it’s still there.
“It can be found in walls, ceilings, even floor tiles and guttering – basically in any type of building built before 2000.”
Health experts fear that the public think asbestos will only cause problems if a person works closely with it for many years. However, there is evidence to suggest that inhaling just one speck of dust could trigger a related cancer in years to come.
“I qualified as an electrician in 1983 and immediately started working for myself,” Pearce continued.
“When I joined Nottingham Forest I used to put advertisements in the match programme and I often did work at other players’ houses.
“But at the time I was largely ignorant about the dangers of asbestos.
“Looking back it’s very possible that I was exposed to it.
“I worked in warehouses, industrial estates and boiler rooms so the chances of me not breathing it in are very slim.
“The facts and figures are alarming. The number of asbestos–related deaths in the UK is scary.
“This is a killer and it’s a danger to everyone from the tradesperson working on an industrial estate to the great numbers of people working on their own homes.”
To read more about the HSE’s campaign, visit www.beware-asbestos.info