date: 29 January 2004 embargo: 00.01hrs Friday 30 January 2004

Attention: industrial and health correspondents, health and safety media

TUC comment on BMJ asbestos study

Commenting on a study out today (Friday) in this week’s BMJ which suggests that the UK is facing an epidemic of mesothelioma, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

' The BMJ figures reinforce what unions have been saying for many years. Many thousands of workers have already suffered long, slow and painful deaths because of exposure to asbestos. Many tens of thousands more who have worked with asbestos in the past face an uncertain future, not knowing if they too will one day become mesothelioma victims.

'For too long people who develop mesothelioma have been written off as untreatable. We need more research into possible cures for this dreadful illness. The use of asbestos might now be banned in the UK, but this is not the end of the problem.

'Half a million workplaces still contain asbestos, much of it sitting there forgotten about until it gets disturbed during maintenance or demolition work. The best legacy that we can give to those whose lives have been destroyed and ended by this killer dust is to ensure that is managed safely so that no more workers are unwittingly exposed."

The study in the BMJ says that t here are now over 1800 mesothelioma deaths per year in Britain (more than one in 200 of all deaths in men and almost one in 1000 in women) and the number is still increasing. It says that as exposure in the UK continued until 1980, the peak of the epidemic is still to come, and that a strategy is needed to manage these patients.

Notes to Editors:

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Contacts: Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen 020 7467 1248 or 07699 744115 (pager) or email media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (400 words) issued 30 Jan 2004