All the News That’s Fit to Print?1
On the morning of June 13, 2026, I received a WhatsApp message from an old school friend complaining about the wall-to-wall US news coverage of developments and people she could not care less about. These subjects included: the World Cup, the Royal Family (and its extended and disgraced members), Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I was in total agreement with her. I was also having a hard time fathoming why stories about people from Scotland going to the US to watch 22 men kick a ball around a pitch for 90 minutes were being broadcast on BBC primetime news programs.
As I sat down to catch up on posts that morning, I was stunned to discover that there were indeed developments worthy of my attention. Online reports from Brazil, the UK and Belgium announced seismic events in the asbestosphere; in just a few minutes, the news of huge strides in the fight for asbestos justice transformed a day of blah-blah-blah into one of hip-hip-hooray!
The first story which caught my eye was mentioned in a LinkedIn post by Fernanda Giannasi.2 The editorial entitled “Brazilian Association of Those Exposed to Asbestos: 30 years of fighting for workers’ rights” in the Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health summarized the huge impact made by a grassroots group of asbestos victims (ABREA) which had provided “visibility of the dangers of the use of this mineral [asbestos] by the Brazilian industry, contributing to the expansion of the asbestos debate in the country… ABREA’s trajectory is intertwined with the construction of the Occupational Health field in Brazil.” Although the tribute to ABREA was brief – multiple books have in fact been written about the importance of the work of ABREA – the fact that it appeared in the highly prestigious Brazilian Journal of Occupational Health was significant.
 ABREA members and supporters at the Global Asbestos Congress in Osasco, Brazil in 2000. Picture from the IBAS Archive. |
Before ABREA was established, vested interests insisted that the use of chrysotile asbestos – the type mined in Brazil – was safe. In 2017, after 20+ years of grassroots mobilization by ABREA, together with its domestic and international partners, the Supreme Court issued national prohibitions banning the commercial exploitation of chrysotile asbestos.
 This magnificent silver plaque was presented by the São Paulo City Council to ABREA on December 12, 2025 to mark ABREA’s 30th anniversary. Photograph courtesy of ABREA.3 |
Soon after I had finished reading the latest tribute to ABREA, I was alerted by a colleague – also via LinkedIn – to the news that our mutual friend Adrian Budgen, the National Head of Asbestos and Occupational Disease at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, had been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours List in appreciation of his “services to the Victims of Asbestos Related Diseases and their Families.”4
I first met Adrian in the 1990s when he was researching the background to a test case for environmental asbestos exposure brought on behalf of June Hancock.5 Like her mother Maie, June had contracted mesothelioma – the signature cancer associated with asbestos exposure.6
Neither June nor Maie had worked with asbestos but they had both lived in close proximity to the asbestos factory operated by the Turner & Newall (T&N) subsidiary J.W. Roberts in Armley, Leeds. Despite a no-holds barred trial with the use of all sorts of machinations and dirty tricks by the defendants, June’s legal team won the case at the Leeds High Court on October 27, 1995 and at the Court of Appeal on April 2, 1996. The findings by Mr Justice Holland that a company could be held liable for failing to prevent environmental exposures were explosive: “news of the verdict caused a 12p fall in T&N's share price, a reduction which sliced $110 million off the company's market value.”7
 June Hancock 1936-1997. Picture courtesy of the JHMRF. |
After June’s death in 1997, it was decided to set up the June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund (JHMRF) to continue her fight for asbestos victims by supporting medical and scientific research. Adrian was one of the founders of the Fund and has remained a Trustee to this day.8 In the last 28 years, the JHMRF has raised almost £3 million; with no charity overheads, all of that money was ringfenced for mesothelioma research. Commenting on the work of the Fund Adrian said:
“June was a truly remarkable woman and became a great friend to me. She demonstrated such courage and bravery throughout her legal battle with T&N and the pioneering work she undertook to achieve justice for mesothelioma sufferers lives on through the JHMRF.
Her victory paved the way for others similarly afflicted to seek justice, and the charity continues to honour June’s memory with its research projects. I am very proud to have been a part of it all.
Sadly, we still see many cases where people have developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos through no fault of their own, and we will continue June’s campaign to raise awareness of this terrible disease and the dangers of asbestos.”9
 From the left: Patron of the JHMRF Laurie Kazan-Allen, Co-founders and Trustees of the Fund Kimberley Stubbs and Adrian Budgen. October 6, 2012. Picture courtesy of the JHMRF.10 |
The legacy of the June Hancock case lives on, not only in the judicial precedent but also in the message it sent. As June famously said after winning her case in 1995: “No matter how small you are, you can fight and no matter how big you are, you can lose.”
These words were very much in my mind as I read the upload by Valerie Van Peel, Party Chair of the Belgian political party, The New Flemish Alliance, which landed on LinkedIn that afternoon.11 Van Peel reported that after years of lobbying, the Belgian Government had approved plans to end the immunity from prosecution which had been enjoyed by asbestos defendants for decades. As was the case for UK asbestos plaintiffs prior to the Hancock ruling, people with environmental exposures in Belgium were barred from bringing claims against the companies responsible for their diseases.
 The Jonckheere family: five out of seven members died from the asbestos cancer: mesothelioma. Picture courtesy of Eric Jonckheere.12 |
In the case of Francoise, Pierre-Paul, Stephane and Eric Jonckheere the guilty party was Eternit, one of the largest asbestos conglomerates in the world. Pierre, the father of this beleaguered family, had died in 1987 of mesothelioma contracted whilst working for Eternit. His wife and three sons had never worked for the company but had been exposed to fibers Pierre brought home on his clothes as well as to environmental contamination caused by the operations of the factory very near the family home in Kapelle-op-den-Bos, in the Flemish part of Belgium.
 A detail from a section of a 2013 map of areas adjacent to the Eternit factory in Kappelle-op-den-Bos. Blue dot: a person suffering from asbestos-related disease; black dot: an occupational asbestos death; orange dot: an environmental death; black/yellow dot: suicide of an occupational victim. Picture courtesy of ABEVA. |
Preliminary research by the Belgian Asbestos Victims’ Group (ABEVA), which was later confirmed by epidemiologists, documented many cases of environmental asbestos deaths near the Kappelle site as well as in the neighborhoods of other Eternit factories in Belgium.13
Whilst some details remain to be finalized, last week’s decision by the Council of Ministers is the start of a new era for Belgian asbestos victims. As Van Peel wrote in her LinkedIn Post:
“a historic injustice in the dirtiest political dossier ever is finally being rectified. From now on, victims receiving compensation through the asbestos fund can also take legal action to hold companies like Eternit accountable… today, all those victims are finally getting their basic right back: the right to seek justice against the major asbestos producers, who continued to produce asbestos for years while knowing how deadly it was. Moreover, convicted polluters will henceforth contribute extra to the Asbestos Fund.”
So what will I tell my friend in the US? It pains me to say – as I am no lover of social media – that I will have to admit that when looking for news of real substance the places to look are hysteria-free platforms like LinkedIn rather than mainstream media.
June 22, 2026.
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1 The title of this blog is taken from the slogan adopted by the New York Times in 1897: “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
2 Algranti, E., Garcia L.P., Lorenzo, R.L., Pinto, V.R.S., Associação Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto: 30 anos de luta pelos direitos dos trabalhadores [Brazilian Association of Those Exposed to Asbestos: 30 years of fighting for workers’ rights]. June 12, 2026.
Portuguese version: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbso/a/bNHZDkxHptTyKrZkF4DrnKw/?lang=pt
English version: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbso/a/bNHZDkxHptTyKrZkF4DrnKw/?format=pdf&lang=en
ABREA 30 ANOS (ABREA 30 Years). December, 2025.
ABREA was established on December 9, 1995 in Osasco, Brazil.
https://abrea.org.br/abrea-30-anos/
Joint Press Release. Congratulations to ABREA! December 9, 2025.
https://ibasecretariat.org/press-release-congratulations-to-abrea-dec-9-2025.pdf
3 Kazan-Allen, L. A Day to Remember. December 18, 2025.
http://ibasecretariat.org/lka-blogzxa241.php
4 UK Government. The King’s Birthday Honours List 2026. June 12, 2026.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-kings-birthday-honours-list-2026.
Irwin Mitchell. Specialist asbestos lawyer Adrian Budgen awarded OBE in King’s Birthday Honours. June 13, 2026.
https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/newsandmedia/2026/jun/adrian-budgen-awarded-obe-for-asbestos-support?utm_campaign=PI&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Adrian_OBE
King’s Birthday Honours 2026: The full list of all 1,182 people recognised this year. June 12 2026.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/king-s-birthday-honours-2026-the-full-list-b2994832.html
5 The other claimant in this case was Evelyn Margereson, the widow of mesothelioma victim Arthur Margereson.
6 June Hancock was diagnosed with mesothelioma in October 1993 at the age of 57. She died in October 1997, aged 61.
7 In in his lengthy judgment, Holland expressed strong criticism of the defendants, saying that T&N “tried every means possible, legitimate or otherwise, to wear the plaintiffs down by attrition.”
Kazan-Allen, L. Implications of T&N’s Administration Order. November 28, 2001.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/lka_imp_tn_admin.php
Kazan-Allen, L. Victory for British Asbestos Plaintiffs. British Asbestos Newsletter, Issue 22, Winter 1996.
http://www.britishasbestosnewsletter.org/ban22.htm
8 Bridge, V., Budgen, A. Armley: Too Close to Home. Pages 62-63
http://www.britishasbestosnewsletter.org/ban100_web.pdf
9 Budgen, A. 25th Anniversary of June Hancock’s Landmark Legal Victory. October 17, 2020.
https://www.junehancockfund.org/2020/news/25th-anniversary-of-landmark-victory/
10 The June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. Trustees, patrons and medical advisors. Accessed June 14, 2026.
https://www.junehancockfund.org/about-us/trustees-patrons-medical-advisors/
Stubbs, K. The June Hancock Mesothelioma Research Fund. 2016. Pages 20-22
http://www.britishasbestosnewsletter.org/ban100_web.pdf
11 Van Peel, V. Voor Eric. Voor Erik. En voor alle slachtoffers en hun families [For Eric. For Eric. And for all victims and their families]. June 13, 2026.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/voor-eric-erik-en-alle-slachtoffers-hun-families-valerie-van-peel-zlnfe/
Kazan-Allen, L. A Man on a Mission! April 28, 2022.
https://www.ibasecretariat.org/lka-a-man-on-a-mission.php
12 The image above was compiled before Eric, the oldest Jonckheere son, contracted mesothelioma. Pierre (1987), Françoise (2000), Pierre-Paul (2003) Stéphane (2009) and Eric (2024) all died from the same asbestos cancer: mesothelioma.
Kazan-Allen, L. The Jonckheeres – A Belgian Family Under Siege. 2021.
https://ibasecretariat.org/lka-the-jonkheeres-a-belgian-family-under-seige.pdf
Kazan-Allen, L. “Towards the Light.” December 21, 2024.
http://ibasecretariat.org/lka-blogzxa229.php
13 Kazan-Allen, L. Belgium's Asbestos Killing Fields. May 23, 2013.
https://ibasecretariat.org/lka-belgium-asbestos-killing-fields.php
IBAS article abstracts, Belgium:
https://ibasecretariat.org/abs_archive_articles.php?sel=c&c_val=Belgium
