| Asbestos May Claim 60,000
Construction News - 22 February, 2007
More than 60,000 builders exposed to asbestos in the 1960s and 70s could die from diseases associated with the deadly dust.
Professor Julian Peto - Cancer research UK chairman of epidemiology at the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine - said the exposure of those who worked in the construction industry created an epidemic of mesothelioma, which will peak in less than 10 years.
The aggressive lung cancer can take 40 years to develop. Prof Peto said: "Mesothelioma is on a completely different scale from any other industrial cancer disease in the world.
"The highest-risk group of all is carpenters. One in 10 of all carpenters in Britain of that generation could be affected."
* re-produced with kind permission of ARCA |
