Former UK civil servant sues tax company for asbestos exposure

September 29th, 2010 - A cancer patient, whom doctors say has only a few weeks to live, is suing a tax company she worked for in an asbestos lawsuit, according to the Sutton Guardian.

Helen Wickings, from Wallingford, UK, believes she was exposed to asbestos over a 40-year period when she worked as a civil servant for the Inland Revenue services in Epsom and Croydon.

Wickings, 64, was athletically fit for years but her condition quickly deteriorated within a few short months. She is now barely able to walk, according to the news source.

She believes she was first exposed during the 1970's in Croyden where she took frequent trips to the basement to fetch folders covered in dust. In the 1980's, she frequently read fuel meters in the Epsom building's boiler room among old and rusty pipes.

Recalling a flood in the Epsom buildings, she remembers how men in hazard suits came to remove asbestos after she had already traveled to the contaminated room multiple times.

Asbestos is commonly found in structures built before the 1980's, as its uses were thought to be completely beneficial as an insulator, the EPA reports.