A BLACKBURN man who is dying from an asbestos related cancer has launched a legal battle for compensation from his former employers.

Michael Lang, 56, suffers from malignant mesothelioma, a terminal cancer of the lung tissue, invariably induced by contact with asbestos, and faces an inevitable deterioration in his condition.

Now, in a writ issued at London's High Court and just made publicly available, he is suing Innogy plc for damages for more than £150,000.

He says the company negligently exposed him to deadly asbestos dust when he worked for it between 1973 and 1974.

Mr Lang, of Whalley New Road, Blackburn, worked for Innogy's predecessor Jigmo Engineering at Padiham Power Station as a fitter.

The writ says that as he and colleagues stripped down and maintained stream turbines, he walked or stood on cylinder heads, disturbing asbestos dust.

It says he and colleagues also breathed in the dust after using a sledgehammer to hit wrenches on nuts until they came loose, and when wrenches and sledgehammers were used to tighten nuts, both processes disturbing lagging.

Further exposure is alleged when he worked near to lagging contractors who removed old asbestos and put on new asbestos, working in very dusty conditions, and sometimes brushing against asbestos which also released dust into the atmosphere.

The writ claims his employers negligently failed to protect him against asbestos dust, failed to provide protective equipment, failed to warn of the hazards, and failed to give him a safe place of work. Mr Lang is waiting for a reply from Innogy plc and hopes that the matter will be resolved by the end of the year.

Specialists advised Mr Lang two years ago that he had between one and six years to live.

Padiham Power Station closed in the early 1990s and was demolished in 1998.

Shuttleworth Mead Business Park now stands on the site of the power station. The 73-acre site was redeveloped at a cost of £1 million, backed by UK and European grants and was opened by Trade and Industry Minister Richard Caborn in March 2001.