Asbestos Health Statistics

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Asbestos Health Statistics

The UK's Biggest Workplace Killer

Over 5,000 Asbestos-related disease deaths per year

Updated 30/10/2019

Inhalation of asbestos fibres can cause cancers such as mesothelioma and lung cancer, and other serious lung diseases such as asbestosis and pleural thickening.

There were 2,526 mesothelioma deaths in 2017 and is estimated that there were, in addition, a similar number of deaths due to asbestos-related lung cancer.

Also, 517 Asbestosis deaths in 2017 due to past exposures to asbestos

All asbestos-related diseases typically take many years to develop so current statistics reflect the legacy of past working conditions.
Widespread use of asbestos containing products in the past, particularly in the post-WWII building industry, led to a large increase in asbestos-related disease in Great Britain over the last few decades.
The cancer, mesothelioma, has such a strong relationship with asbestos that annual deaths give a particularly clear view of the effect of past exposures.
Annual deaths increased steeply over the last 50 years, largely as a result of asbestos exposure prior to 1980, and are now expected to continue at current levels for the rest of the decade before declining.