| Hidden Killer Claiming More Lives Each Year |
| The Lincolnshire Echo has reported that there is a toxic time-bomb waiting to explode in Lincolnshire, health and safety managers have warned.
The county has already seen a massive increase in the number of asbestos-related deaths since 1999.
And now the numbers are expected to climb even further - reaching record levels between 2011 and 2015, according to the Health and Safety Executive. This is because people's exposure to asbestos can take between 15 and 60 years to take affect. This means scores of people in Lincolnshire could already be infected with an asbestos-related disease without even knowing it. Kim Atherton, the co-ordinator of the Asbestos Disease Association, said people who had been exposed to asbestos in the 1960s may already be suffering the effects. "It can sit there on your lung for 25 to 60 years without you even knowing it," she said. "One day you can develop a chest infection that doesn't go away and your GP does an x-ray and discovers something is not quite right. "You could have been in the construction industry 45 years ago but you could still be suffering the effects." Ms Atherton, who runs the Nottingham-based organisation, added: "We stopped using blue asbestos in 1972 and brown asbestos in 1984 but asbestos is still being found in housing, which means the numbers of sufferers is just going to go up and up." The number of asbestos-related deaths in the county has been steadily rising since 1999 when only 12 people died from mesothelioma - a condition associated with exposure to asbestos. In 2003, the last year for which the Department for Work and Pensions figures are available, that figure jumped to 18 - a 50 per cent increase. Ms Atherton said she had handled several cases of people suffering from the effects of asbestos in Lincolnshire, including former British Rail workers and ex-farm labourers. There were 11 cases of people being diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2000, one in 2000, 15 in 2001, rising to 17 in 2002 and 18 in 2003. At least 3,500 people die from asbestos-related conditions every year nationally. A spokesman for the executive said: "Asbestos is now a banned substance, and current levels of exposure are much lower than in the past." The figures on the number of asbestos-related deaths were revealed in response to a parliamentary question by Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd. Deadly fibres were widely used in building works Asbestos is the name given to a group of minerals which occur naturally as bundles of fibres which can be separated into thin threads. These fibres are not affected by heat or chemicals and do not conduct electricity. For these reasons, asbestos has been widely used in many industries. Four types of asbestos have been used commercially. Asbestos fibre masses tend to break easily into a dust composed of tiny particles that can float in the air and stick to clothes. The fibres may be easily inhaled or swallowed. Asbestos was used extensively as a building material in Britain from the 1950s through to the mid-1980s. |
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