Health Crisis at Drax: Power Giant Faces Lawsuits Over Workers Developing Asthma from Wood Dust Exposure

Energy company Drax, which operates the UK’s largest power station and relies entirely on burning imported wood pellets (biomass), is facing multiple lawsuits from current and former employees. Workers claim they developed occupational asthma and other serious respiratory illnesses due to prolonged, inadequate protection against wood dust exposure.

An investigation found that ten lawsuits have been filed against the company, with six already settled out of court and four others scheduled for trial in 2026. This comes alongside a new class action lawsuit filed against Drax in the US by 700 residents near one of its wood pellet mills in Mississippi.

Workers describe the dust as “so fine” that it is pervasive across the entire site. They claim that management failed to inform them of the serious health risks—which include asthma, dermatitis, and nasal cancer—despite internal company documents dating back to 2011 and 2013 acknowledging these hazards. One 2019 internal presentation even falsely claimed “Biomass pellets are not harmful to health,” even though five workers had already been diagnosed with industrial asthma by that time.

The lawsuits follow three Health and Safety Executive (HSE) improvement notices filed in 2016 for “significant contraventions of health and safety law.” Although HSE later dropped a criminal prosecution against Drax, unions and former employees fear a looming public health crisis, drawing parallels to the corporate concealment of the dangers of asbestos.