Annotated copies of the Rowley Ashworth Solicitors’ annual review, 1998-2007.
Incomplete set: 1999 and 2000 are missing.
Mainly correspondence (including telephone memoranda) re asbestos-related queries. Very occasionally the information flows in the opposite direction i.e. SPAID / OEDA asks questions.
Front matter includes material on access to medical records and how long hospitals keep records.
Correspondence (including telephone memoranda) and press cuttings re the threat posed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterium responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. Includes:
- OEDA mailshot, May 2003, encouraging c.60 MPs to raise the point that the UK had the highest incidence of MRSA in Europe in the upcoming parliamentary debate
- correspondence with BBC contacts and with Microgenix Ltd, air purification experts
- copy of National Audit Office’s report (February 2000) ‘The management and control of hospital acquired infection in acute NHS trusts in England’
- press coverage on MRSA (in the UK) 1999-2007
Roughly in chronological order.
Correspondence (including telephone memoranda) with Robert Pointer, Tyne & Wear Asbestos Support Group / Barrow Asbestos-related Disease Support Group, re awareness-raising concerning the dangers of asbestos. Starts with request Pointer for information to be used at TUC annual conference, later foundation asbestos victims support group.
Correspondence with and re CancerLink 1984-2007, in reverse chronological order. Includes leaflets and brochures of the charity, conference information, etc.
Correspondence and papers. Includes National Hazards Conference announcements, minutes of meetings of the National Hazards Campaign, occasionally minutes of the European Work Hazards Network Steering Group, successive versions of Hazards Campaign Charter.
Correspondence including telephone memoranda re various inquiries relating to asbestos in housing. Includes press cuttings, reports.
Further includes
- Commission for Local Administration in England (May 1997) ‘Report on an investigation into complaint No 95/A/2081 against London Borough of Tower Hamlets’
- copy Department of the Environment [c.1992] ‘Green rights and responsibilities: a citizen’s guide to the environment'
- minutes of a meeting of the tenants re Bermuda Road flats, Cambridge, 1988
Six series, each of them representing a type of information service provided by SPAID / OEDA. As follows:
- fielding occupational and environmental health enquiries
- publications by the organisation
- display boards and posters generated for use at meetings, conferences and around the office
- responses to requests for information from solicitors
- responses to requests for information from the media
The section concludes with a small series relating to compensation claims against the Johns-Manville Corporation / the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust.
Networking was a core activity for Nancy Tait's organisation, and one she pursued through the so-called 'SPAID Fellowship' (imagined as a supporters' club), through an extensive series of conferences and meetings, and through information exchange and the development of professional contacts and alliances with a range of organisations and individuals, notably unions, victims support groups, and legal experts. Primarily these were based in the UK. But Tait also maintained a North American correspondence, in particular with personal injury lawyers and with asbestos critics, and she avidly followed news on European health & safety regulation.