THE husband of a woman killed when Cyclone George flattened a camp in Western Australia is suing billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and her employer, Spotless.

Perth woman Debra Till, 47, died on March 9 when the cyclone destroyed an FMG railway construction camp in the Pilbara where she was working as a kitchen hand for FMG contractor Spotless.

The cyclone’s 275km/h winds sent temporary buildings flying and flattened the camp, injuring 20 other people including Craig Allan Raabe, 42, of Gympie in Queensland.

He died two days later in a Perth hospital.

Perth lawyer Shash Nigam today said he was starting legal proceedings to sue for negligence on behalf of Ms Till’s husband John Till.

“We are in the process of commencing legal proceedings against Fortescue and Spotless,” Mr Nigam said.

It is expected to take some time before a writ can be lodged.

Cyclone George also killed a third person, Sydney Desmond Baker, 74, who was found dead outside his destroyed donga at nearby Indee station.

Police later said an autopsy had confirmed Mr Baker suffered massive internal injuries when the storm struck his temporary hut.

FMG has admitted no liability over the two fatalities which occurred at a temporary camp set up to service workers building a railway as part of its $3.7 billion Pilbara iron ore project.

The railway link between FMG’s lucrative iron ore deposit and a port, which is being built, was expected to allow FMG to start exporting iron ore in March 2008.

FOURTEEN people have been stricken with salmonella poisoning in Tasmania’s northwest, two of them requiring hospital treatment.

Tasmania’s health authorities said they were investigating following the food poisoning outbreak over the past fortnight.

All of those affected are now recovering from the bacteria, which attacks the stomach and intestines, causing gastro-enteritis, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

A bakery at Somerset in the state’s northwest temporarily closed for business on Monday after some of the victims said they had eaten its products.

VJ’s Bakery owner Peter Shaw said he thought eggs were the likely source of the bacteria, The Advocate reported today.

“Because we are food manufacturers, we have decided to temporarily close down as a precaution,” the Advocate quoted him as saying.

“The possibility is that something is contaminated, but it’s not something we’ve done directly,” he said.

Tasmania’s Director of Public Health Dr Roscoe Taylor said test results had confirmed 14 people were affected, two of whom had been treated in hospital for dehydration.

Salmonella can cause severe dehydration in infants and the elderly and patients are advised to see a doctor if symptoms persist.

Dr Taylor said the bakery had suspended operations pending further investigations into the cause and were helping with investigations.

But he said: “The investigations cover other businesses in the area as well as food suppliers from elsewhere in Tasmania”.

The Public and Environmental Health Service (PEHS) was alerted last week and contacted all GPs in the area on Friday asking for tests on anyone reporting symptoms of gastro-enteritis.

Dr Taylor said the PEHS was investigating with help from the Waratah-Wynyard Council.

Salmonella is a notifiable disease under the Public Health Act and all cases are followed up to determine if any foods are implicated.

A LABOURER has been crushed to death under a 300kg stone slab he was helping to move in Perth’s north.

WorkSafe said it was investigating the death of the 43-year-old man at a stone-working company in Wangara late yesterday.

It is believed he was helping to move the slab of engineered stone when it fell on him, WorkSafe said.

Inspectors arrived at the site soon after the incident, and began to interview witnesses.

The discovery of potentially lethal asbestos at Alinta’s construction site within Alcoa’s Wagerup refinery grounds prompted worried contractors to flee the area this week.

About 120 Alcoa workers also stopped work yesterday while management tried to allay their fears.

The asbestos was found in packaging for pipes imported from India, prompting a major clean-up, the installation of air-monitoring stations, the affected area to be quarantined and medical tests to be offered to all workers.

Alinta, which is using contractors on its Cogeneration construction site, has also bagged and removed soil from the affected area and locked all the containers which had carried the pipes.

“Alinta Limited regards this as a serious matter and is actively working with accredited safety officials and union representatives to mitigate any risk this may present,” the company said in a statement.

Yesterday, the Australian Workers Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the CEPU (Engineering and Electrical Division) met Alcoa about members’ concerns — the Alinta site is separated only by a wire fence.

CEPU assistant State secretary Jim Murie said it was easy to understand why workers were so anxious.

“It only takes one tiny fibre of asbestos which you can’t even see to lodge in the lungs and kill a person, but of course it doesn’t then permeate for about 20-odd years,” he said.

“There’s also concern it has blown into the carpark and was it on cars? Has it been taken home? This morning a whole range of confusions erupted.”

Sufficient reassurances were made during yesterday’s meetings to persuade Alcoa staff to return to work, and a full investigation will be carried out, with the Alinta contractors and unions involved.

But AMWU State president Steven McCartney insisted the asbestos should never have been allowed into the country in the first place.

“It seems ironic that for the last 63 years or so asbestos has been outlawed here yet we choose to use Third World countries to manufacture pipe work which can be done here, then when we import it we get Third World conditions in the wrapping,” he said.

AWU branch secretary Tim Daly condemned the fact that workers might have been exposed to the asbestos.

Alcoa said all its workers would receive a letter of confirmation that the site was clear and safe.

A 51-YEAR-OLD man was crushed to death when 15 tonnes of steel fell on him as it was unloaded from a truck south-east of Melbourne.

The incident happened at about 4.20pm (AEDT) in a warehouse at BlueScope Steel in Bayview Rd, Hastings.

WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said a forklift was used to unload the steel from the truck when the accident occurred.

“The steel has fallen and the man was struck,” Mr Birt said.

Mr Birt said people were urged to keep their distance from machinery as heavy materials were moved and transported.

He said another crushing incident had occurred on January 19 in West Melbourne, where 10 tonnes of steel killed a man as he worked in a ship’s hull

The man was working on the vessel Cape Conway at Appleton Dock when the steel swung from a crane.

Mr Birt said 10 people had now lost their lives at work this year in Victoria, twice the number of deaths the same time last year.

THREE hundred workers at a central Queensland coal mine will walk off the job tomorrow morning after enterprise bargaining negotiations (EBA) with mine management broke down.

Workers from Anglo Coal’s Dawson mine near Moura will stop work for four hours from 7am (AEST) tomorrow over proposed changes to the mine’s EBA.

Construction, Forestry, Mines and Energy Union (CFMEU) vice president Stuart Vaccaneo said permanent employees at the mine, including electricians and production workers would take part in the strike.

According to Mr Vaccaneo, a key element of the dispute is Anglo Coal’s efforts to require staff to submit to medical examinations at any time, rather than at five-year intervals.

“The company are seeking to remove rights which currently exist and we are certainly seeking to protect those award provisions,” he said.

An Anglo Coal spokeswoman said the company would continue negotiating the EBA with the workers.

“Anglo Coal is intending to continue to work cooperatively with our employees and their union to achieve a satisfactory resolution and we don’t intend to negotiate the agreement with our employees through the media,” she said.

AUSTRALIA has one of the highest rates of asbestos-related disease in the world, according to a new report.

The international analysis, published in the Lancet journal, found a clear link between historic asbestos use and recent asbestos-related disease deaths.

The Japanese researchers analysed the amount of asbestos consumption per head of population in 33 countries during the 1960s, the decade when the product rose in popularity.

They compared consumption with rates of related lung and chest diseases between 2000 to 2004, and gave Australia one of the highest placings worldwide.

The team said their results foreshadowed a “global epidemic” of asbestos-related disease which was a cause for “widespread concern”.

“This ecological study reveals clear and plausible positive relations between amounts of historical asbestos consumption and deaths from diseases associated with asbestos,” they wrote in the journal.

“Our results lend support to the notion that all countries should move towards eliminating the use of asbestos.”

Asbestos, and building products containing the fibres, were banned Australia-wide in 2003, but every year hundreds still die from conditions sparked by contact with the product decades ago.

The illnesses, including asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural disorders and the lethal cancer mesothelioma, have been the subject of a large-scale compensation deal involving the building company James Hardie.

Asbestos researcher Alison Reid, from the University of Western Australia, said the number of Australians dying from the disease would not peak for another decade.

“After that the rate should start to drop off but it will take us a while. Australia is just riddled with it,” Ms Reid said.

“We took it up so enthusiastically, importing it, mining it, using it everywhere in everything.”

Treatment for the disease is very limited, and it is universally fatal, with most patients living just nine months between diagnosis and death.

Some doctors have had limited success with chemotherapy and radical surgery, but Ms Reid said it was only palliative care, not a cure.

She said that despite the study’s alarming results, there was little point in screening for the disease.

“Even if we find people who have it, we have virtually no treatment to offer them,” Ms Reid said.

“You’d just be really frightening people.”

A GAS leak in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs today forced residents indoors and windows closed and air-conditioners off.

Police said the leak at suburban Norwood was caused when a gas main was damaged by excavation work this morning.

Roads around the leak were closed as emergency services were called.

“This is now a major gas leak and residents are asked to remain in their homes, shut windows and turn off their air-conditioners until the gas leak can be contained,” a police spokesman said.