Witness Appeal: Did you work with the late Mr John Cummings at Associated Ethyl Company Ltd (Octel)?

The specialist asbestos litigation team at Hugh James have been instructed by Ms Jennifer Jones, following her diagnosis with the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma.

Jennifer believes that she was exposed to asbestos as a child through her late father, Mr John Cummings, who worked at Associated Ethyl Company Ltd (now Innospec Limited), also known as Octel, in Ellesmere Port. Mr Cummings was born in 1910 and worked at Octel’s Ellesmere Port chemical plant between approximately 1953 and 1975.

Unfortunately, Jennifer has limited information about her father’s work at Octel but believes that he carried out a manual role. We understand that Mr Cummings started at Octel in 1953 as a Process Operator. We believe that he worked at the Alloy Plant, which was part of the lead works. We further believe that he may have carried out the role of ‘Amenity Foreman’ around 1962.

Jennifer recalls that her father’s clothes were always dusty and dirty when he returned home from work. Her mother would launder his dusty clothes, and sometimes Jennifer would help with doing this. We believe that Jennifer would have been exposed to asbestos dust by way of her father’s work clothes.

Jennifer is appealing for witnesses who may have worked with her late father, or who worked at Octel’s Ellesmere Port site between 1953 and 1975 and can recall the working conditions there. We have evidence which indicates that asbestos was widely used at the site around this time, and that manual workers worked with asbestos on a regular basis. We are also aware that manual workers worked in proximity to laggers who were mixing asbestos on site.