Asbestos campaign is set to pin down killer
Tradesmen across the area are being warned to beware of asbestos.
The Health and Safety Executive has launched its Asbestos: The Hidden Killer campaign to raise awareness of the risks of asbestos and how workers can best protect themselves.
About 20 tradesmen die across Britain every week from asbestos-related diseases and the numbers are increasing.
The death rate is higher in the south-east than in any other region in Britain, with 4,293 men having died from mesothelioma – a cancer caused by breathing in the deadly fibres – between 1981 and 2005.
Portsmouth has had the highest number of deaths in the area and the city has the sixth highest death rate in the UK among men for mesothelioma.
The executive says plumbers, joiners and electricians are most at risk, and anyone working on a building that was built or refurbished before 2000 could be exposed to asbestos without even knowing it.
Heather Bryant, HSE regional director for the south east, said: 'Asbestos is Britain's biggest industrial killer. Contrary to what many people believe, the risks are not a thing of the past.
'The most simple, but important, advice is, if you are not 100 per cent certain that there is no asbestos where you are working, then don't start work. It is not worth the risk.'
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Friday 25 May 2012
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