Thompsons Solicitors is marking International Workers’ Memorial Day with a stark warning: preventable industrial diseases are still claiming lives across the UK, with new cases being diagnosed every week.
Despite decades of knowledge about the dangers of asbestos, silica dust and other hazardous substances, the firm says workers continue to be exposed to unsafe conditions - leading to life-changing and often fatal illnesses that should never happen.
As part of International Workers’ Memorial Day, local representatives from Thompsons will attend Workers’ Memorial Day events taking place across the country, where they will deliver speeches of remembrance and lay wreaths in memory of those who have died.
Two Thompsons’ clients speaking out this Workers’ Memorial Day highlight the human cost behind the statistics: the family of Mr Greenwell, from North Yorkshire, who died from mesothelioma after asbestos exposure at his workplace in Tyneside, and Lisa Walker, whose husband Lee died in 2025 after developing a fatal lung disease linked to dangerous conditions in a glass factory in Rotherham.
Every year, Thompsons represents workers like Mr Greenwell and Mr Walker, who are diagnosed with serious industrial diseases after years of exposure to asbestos, silica dust and other harmful substances, often due to unsafe working practices.
These recent cases handled by the firm highlight the human cost behind the Health and Safety Executive figures, which show the worrying scale of workplace harm in Britain:
- 1.9 million workers are currently suffering from a work-related illness
- Around 5,000 Asbestos-related disease deaths per year, including mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis
- 124 workers were killed in work-related accidents (2024-2025)
- Around 11,000 lung disease deaths each year estimated to be linked to past exposures at work.
According to Hazards Campaign, those figures could be significantly higher - raising serious questions about how much of Britain’s workplace health crisis is going unrecorded, unreported, and unaddressed.
Phil Liptrot, Head of Personal Injury at Thompsons, said: “Too often we see the consequences of avoidable failures by employers. These are tragedies that should never have happened—they are the result of basic safety measures being ignored by employers.”
The impact extends far beyond the individual.
Partners become carers. Children watch a parent’s health deteriorate. Families are left coping with grief, anger and financial hardship - sometimes decades after the original exposure.
In some cases, even family members are affected, developing serious illness after being exposed to asbestos fibres brought home on work clothing.
Thompsons is also warning about the re-emergence of silicosis, now being seen in younger workers exposed to high-silica materials such as engineered stone, sometimes after only a few years.
“Health and safety is not red tape - it is a fundamental right,” Phil added.
“No one should pay for their job with their health or their life. These deaths and illnesses are preventable.”
As part of International Workers’ Memorial Day, Thompsons is paying tribute to all those who have lost their lives due to work-related illness and injury and is calling for stronger protections to prevent future harm.
Remember the dead. Fight for the living