British deaths due to asbestos at crisis level, according to figures | Society

The death toll from asbestos exposure has reached crisis levels in Britain, the Guardian has learned, while people pay the price for "criminal failures committed by the government". industry and government "several decades ago.

Asbestos-related cancers can occur up to 50 years after exposure and deaths are now thought to be at their peak, years after widespread use of the carcinogen in the industry between the 1950s and 1970s.

According to figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) this week, 2,523 deaths are due to mesothelioma, a cancer of the organ lining caused almost exclusively by inhalation of asbestos fibers. This is a number similar to the previous five years.

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Mesothelioma rates, almost always fatal, almost doubled between 1,317 cases in 1995 and 2017. More than half of the deaths from mesothelioma occurred in people over 75 years of age and 82% in men.

It is estimated that a similar number of people die from asbestos-related lung cancers, but this can not be measured with as much precision as it is more difficult to establish the cause of cancer. of the lung.

The HSE predicts that annual figures will remain at current levels for the remainder of the decade before starting to decline, although it has already anticipated earlier declines.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral of natural origin, was widely used in the UK as an insulator and flame retardant. The import and use of blue and brown asbestos were banned in 1985, while white asbestos, considered less dangerous, was banned in 1999.

Mesothelioma deaths are common among people working in shipbuilding and construction – especially carpenters, plumbers and electricians – as well as in asbestos manufacturing plants.

Roger Maddocks, a partner at the Irwin Mitchell LLP law firm specializing in workplace accidents and occupational diseases, said, "In many cases, people are now paying the price for criminal errors committed by industry and government, responsible for the lack of action the part of the factory inspection [the precursor to the HSE]. "

Asbestos is a term for a group of minerals made up of microscopic fibers. It was used in the construction of buildings for insulation, flooring and roofing, and was sprayed on ceilings and walls. It is banned in the United Kingdom but can be found in buildings built or renovated before 2000.

When materials containing asbestos are disturbed or damaged, fibers are released into the air. When these fibers are inhaled, they can cause serious diseases, including:

• mesothelioma – cancer that affects the lining of the lungs.
• Lung cancer related to asbestos.
• L & # 39; asbestosis – severe scarring of the lungs after high exposure to asbestos for many years. This can cause shortness of breath and can even be fatal in severe cases.
• Pleural thickening – the lining of the lung thickens and swells. The lung itself can be compressed, causing shortness of breath and discomfort in the chest.

The Health and Safety Executive estimates that about 5,000 people die each year in the UK from asbestos-related cancers, which can develop decades after exposure. About 20 tradespeople die each week as a result of previous exposure.

Maddocks said that the factory inspectorate knew, in the late nineteenth century, that significant exposure to asbestos entailed a risk of life-threatening respiratory disease and that In the 1960s, it was common knowledge that exposure to small amounts of the substance presented a risk of mesothelioma.

"Despite this, people continued to be exposed, and often very exposed, for years, even decades after the mid-1960s," he said.

An HSE spokesperson said that although controls on the use of blue asbestos were introduced in 1970, the dangers of brown asbestos were not realized until the end of that decade. The intensive use of brown asbestos is one of the main reasons why the UK, along with Australia, has the highest mesothelioma rates in the world.

"In hindsight, it's now obvious that it should have been banned sooner, but specific evidence regarding brown asbestos has been slower to emerge and at the time, it would have been more difficult to see that, "they said.

The badysis of data shared with the Guardian by the Royal College of Physicians showed that NHS trusts in former industrial areas had diagnosed the highest number of mesothelioma cases from 2014 to 2016.

The confidence of the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation and the NHS trust of the Leicester University Hospitals were diagnosed 118 times during this period. Leeds and Portsmouth diagnosed 107 and 106 respectively.

Guardian's badysis of coroners' numbers has highlighted the enormous impact of Britain's industrial past on the health of the country's population.

In Nottinghamshire, North Northumberland and Sunderland, one in four coroner deaths was due to an "industrial disease". It is thought that a large portion of these deaths are related to asbestos, although they also include conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and silicosis.

There were 2,709 "occupational disease deaths" recorded by coroners in England and Wales in 2018, an increase of 44% from the 1,878 recorded in 1995, the oldest figure available. Nine percent of all deaths recorded by coroners in 2018 were due to an industrial disease.

Jo Ritson, of the Asbestos Victim Support Group that covers southern Yorkshire and northern Nottinghamshire, said demand for his services was increasing as he struggled every year to get funding. He saw 117 clients in 2011-2012 and 298 in 2017-2018. He saw 192 people until May of this year.

Ritson said his clients' reactions to the news that they had mesothelioma were varied. "For some people, it's a lightning bolt and they really have a hard time understanding that what they did when they were 20 years old or while they were learning was ruining the retreat they'd been working on all the time. their life. ," she says.

"But others tend to know that this will happen because they have seen many of their colleagues die as a result of an asbestos-related disease. For many of them, it's like a stopwatch and they do not know if he's going to hit them or not. "

A spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Pensions said: "Since the dangers of asbestos have become evident, governments have, over the years, adopted regulations and laws. Asbestos is banned in construction and exposure risks are extremely low today. "

He added that he was baduming his responsibility to compensate people with mesothelioma very seriously, automatically granting the maximum rate of compensation for disability resulting from bodily injury and granting a lump sum compensation of up to £ 92,000, depending on the age of the person.

"It's not because it's forbidden that it's gone"

Mavis Nye, 78, was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, more than 50 years after being exposed to asbestos dust on her husband's combination after working as an apprentice at the Chatham, Kent, shipyard.

"He was going home with everything in his hair and clothes," she said. "It was just dust for me. So you shake it and put it in the washing machine and that's it. "

Nye is one of thousands of people each year to be diagnosed with mesothelioma.

"When they tell you for the first time that you have Mesothelioma, you can not even pronounce the word, so it's not registered," said Nye. Writing on the website of the charity Mesothelioma UK, Ray, Nye's husband, said, "How do I feel about the fact that it's me who gave him this sentence? Vide, destroyed, sick and yes, guilty.

"Pain is part of everyday life for me"

In 2015, John Chapman was preparing for the Mallorca 312, the longest amateur cycling event in Europe. He was traveling about 6,000 km a year, which helped him reduce the fatigue he was starting to feel when he was too busy and did not have enough recovery time.

At an appointment with a pulmonologist, he was asked if he had ever been exposed to asbestos. "I said I had it. At first, I spent 10 years working in a foundry, "said Chapman.

At the age of 54, mesothelioma was diagnosed. Today, at 57, he has survived many expectations. "It's like being sentenced to death based on statistics and life expectancy," he said. "That's the nature of the beast."

He has more than a fifth of his lungs in the left lung and a bone tumor the size of an Easter egg. "Pain is unfortunately an integral part of daily life for me," he said. "I have a Macmillan nurse who comes to see me and we are constantly adjusting and modifying the pain medications to try to make up for the pain you are feeling.

Chapman and Nye are unhappy about being exposed to the substance when there was already evidence that it was dangerous, but both are mainly concerned that asbestos is still around us.

"It's not because it's forbidden that it disappears," says Nye. "This is not the case. It's everywhere. It's in buildings that are constantly being demolished and redeveloped, which can make them airy … We need to educate young people because they think it's a problem of the past. "