Damage to Health

Breathing in air containing asbestos fibres can lead to asbestos-related diseases, mainly cancers of the lungs and chest lining.

Asbestos is only a risk to health if asbestos fibres are released into the air and breathed in. Past exposure to asbestos currently kills 3,500 people a year in Great Britain and this number is expected to go on rising for the next ten years.

There is no cure for asbestos related diseases.

There is usually a long delay between first exposure to asbestos and the onset of disease. This can vary from 15 to 60 years. Only by preventing or minimising these exposures now, will asbestos related disease eventually be wiped out.

From the 1950’s until the mid 1980’s, asbestos was extensively used as a building material in this country. Even though some of this material has been removed over the years, there are still thousands of tons of asbestos still present in buildings. To put a figure on that, it’s estimated that there is some form of asbestos in more than half a million non-domestic premises.