RAF painter disabled by solvents
Sourced from TUC Risks e- bulletin:
A services painter who was left with a devastating degenerative neurological condition after he was exposed to dangerous toxins while working in 'Victorian conditions' has won his 17-year battle for compensation. Shaun Wood, 52, was diagnosed with Multiple System Atrophy-P (MSAP), a Parkinson's type condition which affects the nervous system, after exposure to a cocktail of solvents as a painter and finisher at RAF sites across the world. There is no cure for the condition which has left him needing to use a wheelchair. The High Court in Middlesbrough upheld his claims that he was exposed to dangerous chemicals at work and they caused his condition. He is likely to be awarded substantial compensation at a later hearing. He had joined the military from school in 1975. His job involved painting aircraft and motor vehicles, which led to exposure to solvents including trichloreoethylene and dichloromethane for sometimes in excess of 12 hours a day, particularly in the lead up to the first Gulf War. He was medically discharged in 1995 after his Parkinson's was diagnosed. Subsequent examinations revealed he had MSA with predominant Parkinsonism. One of his RAF colleagues who did the same work was also diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at a similarly young age. In 2007, when a third RAF painter successfully claimed compensation in Scotland, he started a compensation claim. At a five day hearing in Middlesbrough last month the level of Shaun's exposure to toxins during the first Gulf War was shown to have been between 10 and 20 times the recommended maximum exposure levels. On 5 May 2010, the trial judge found that the toxins Shaun was exposed to, particularly at the dangerously high levels, had caused the majority of the symptoms from which he now suffers.