CADU - Civilian DU Worker Wins Legal Aid to Sue Honeywell

Civilian DU Worker Wins Legal Aid to Sue Honeywell

A civil engineer in the aerospace industry in Yeovil, UK, Mr Richard 'Nibby David', has won legal aid to take his case to the High Court. The case will be heard from the 6th to the 17th December 2004. The awarding of legal aid in a personal injury case is extremely unusual, but Mr David's case was judged to be "in the wider public interest".

From 1985 to 1995, Richard 'Nibby' David worked as a civil engineer in the aerospace industry in Yeovil, UK, for the company Normalair Garrett, now owned by the US company Honeywell. Mr David suffers from severe illnesses, which he claims he contracted on the work floor, handling aircraft components containg DU .

One of the proofs of the effects of possible poisoning with DU was delivered by Dr. W. Hoffman of the Bremen Institute for Prevention, Research and Social Medicine, who carried out tests which proved Nibby to have an increased rate of dicentric and ring chromosome mutations in his lymphocytes. These mutations are known to be caused by exposure to ionising radiation.

Subsequent genetic examination and analysis was done by Dr. Beaman at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. It showed Mr. David had developed the exceedingly rare Gitelmans syndrome. This is a genetic condition which affects the kidneys from birth and depends on the genes involved being inherited from both the mother and the father (in itself a rare occurrence). Usually the syndrome is active from birth, but Mr. David developed it in his 40's. Dr. Beaman says the actual cause of the genetic mutation and mature onset is out of his range of expertise.

The hearing was originally scheduled for October but has been postponed in order to allow more time to compile the evidence. The NDDU DU Support Group has been set up to help Mr David. To make a donation or to find out more about Mr David's case please visit www.bandepleteduranium.org where details of how to donate online are given.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

From CADU News 10: Spring 2002

Read more articles about Civilian Uses and Consequences

Page last updated: January 28, 2003