One of the most dangerous forms of air pollution is not being taken seriously despite it’s huge threat. Martin Guttridge-Hewitt learns how policy changes can help, but successive governments have been reluctant to act.
26 years after Westminster passed a total ban on one of the most commonly used fire-proofing and insulation solutions of the 20th Century, it remains Britain’s leading cause of work-related death. Worse yet, the numbers are predicted to rise in the near future.
The insidious legacy of asbestos is well-known. Less widely understood is how prevalent it still is in the UK’s public estate. 8-in-10 state school campuses contain some form of the fibrous ‘miracle material’, a similar percentage of hospitals, and countless council offices.
Each year sees 5,000 fatalities from related health conditions, with 2,500 people succumbing to incurable mesothelioma. This aggressive cancer can develop up to 40 years after asbestos exposure, killing 60% of patients within a year of diagnosis.
“I think the government is terrified of people seeing the real picture here,” says Paul Shaw, Managing Director of Environtec. “Schools, hospitals, council premises — once people see how much there is in these places I could imagine walk-outs, strikes, things like that.”
In addition to heading up one of the UK’s leading asbestos consultancies, Shaw is part of Asbestos Information CIC. A non-profit organisation formed by professionals accredited through the regulator UKAS, the group recently launched the Asbestos Information Certificate.
Loosely comparable to energy rating system, the programme collects information on the type, quantity and condition of asbestos in any given workplace, so landlords know the true risk across their portfolio and can take necessary action. At national level, this database also provides unparalleled insight into the extent of Britain’s asbestos problem overall, which could inform or even force policy decisions.
“We have done a lot of work to build a clear picture on asbestos prevalence, around 20% of the data needed is now there,” says Shaw, who hopes government will take on the platform and make it mandatory for specialists to contribute. “It’s very much on the radar now, but I feel there is a lot of [political] concern about what this means in practice — the scale of the issue.”
Schools, hospitals and council offices built in the post-war period are a big problem, with 1950s modular and prefabricated designs often using large quantities of asbestos. Educational campuses are particularly worrying, not least as the lungs of pupils are still developing and therefore highly vulnerable. Some students are also known to vandalise buildings, disturbing asbestos leading to exposure. Wayne Bagnall, a demolition and asbestos engineer who received an MBE for his services in 1997 and is currently researching legacy asbestos in reinforced concrete, says legal requirements don’t fully appreciate the dangers.
“In schools, it is critical that you have good management of asbestos… I think the Department for Education is now really getting a grip on asbestos in older schools, as they’re starting to completely replace these buildings… One of the issues has been that clients had asbestos removed, but it’s not been removed properly. Residues and contamination can be left behind, and people wouldn’t know that unless they had a thorough investigation by a UKAS-accredited surveyor,” he says.
“Some policy changes could help. First, HSE strongly recommends using UKAS-accredited surveyors. This should be mandatory,” says Bagnall. “The second is moving away from encapsulation and managing in situ. So if you’re going to refurbish a school theatre, instead of leaving asbestos you don’t have to disturb, which is the current approach, whether it will be disturbed or not asbestos should be removed, eliminating the risk of future disturbance.”
Bringing UK regulation in line with Europe is also important. Britain was one of the world’s largest asbestos importers, often taking raw materials mined in South Africa and processing domestically at some of the globe’s biggest manufacturing sites. Unsurprisingly, then, it’s now home to more mesothelioma patients than anywhere outside Australia. Yet permissible limits — 0.01 fibres per cubic centimetre of air — are 10-times higher than neighbours like the Netherlands.
Whether administrations will act on such advice is unclear. Successive governments have neglected to take steps since 1999’s outright ban, and recommendations from a 2022 Select Committee hearing were ignored. These included compulsory phased removal of asbestos after 40 years, enough time for significant degradation to occur, and the creation of a national database to understand risk. So the Asbestos Information Certificate scheme was, essentially, developed in spite of Downing Street.
But those suffering from illnesses are becoming younger, personal histories are revealing the impact of indirect environmental exposure, and pressure is mounting. Some experts are predicting a fresh spike in asbestos diseases made up of people who have studied or worked inside crumbling buildings.
“The assumption that mesothelioma is an old man’s disease is definitely changing,” says Dr Beth Taylor, Research Fellow at the Mesothelioma UK Research Centre at the University of Sheffield. “Many of the nurses we work with are saying, at least anecdotally, that they are seeing a lot more younger people and women receiving diagnoses.”
Taylor worked on the landmark MAGS study [Mesothelioma. Asbestos. Guidance.], named after Dr Mags Portman, a consultant doctor who succumbed to the disease aged 44 due to exposure during medical training. “That sparked a lot of interest, and when we were looking into the numbers, we realised schools where also a big issue, so then conducted the MEWS research, focused on Museum and Education Workers.
“That was when we realised there was a huge disparity between ONS data used by the government to justify the decision not to remove all asbestos from [public buildings], and the actual numbers,” she continues. “So the ONS data shows 7.2 deaths per annum for healthcare professionals. Ours suggest it’s actually 65. In schools, ONS says 22.9 deaths per year, we put this at 70.”
The gap between official tolls and independent figures is due to several factors. The ONS focuses on sector-specific professionals, missing cleaners, porters, administrative workers and other staff. And it doesn’t look at anyone who died after the age of 75, excluding half of mesothelioma It also only includes an individual’s most recent workplace.
Adrian Budgen, partner at the law firm Irwin Mitchell, heads up the Asbestos and Occupational Disease team and is quick to explain how much his case load has changed in the 30 years since he started. “In the early days, we dealt with people who worked in asbestos manufacturing… heavy exposure.
‘Then we saw a second wave, with less direct exposure for plumbers, electricians, carpenters,’ he continues. ‘Now we have a third wave of environmental exposure, teachers, former pupils, doctors, nurses. This is particularly shocking to the public because if your child goes to school, you expect them to be safe. And you expect a hospital to be safe.’
Budgen recounts the trauma and frustration of being unable to establish asbestos exposure as the cause of mesothelioma death for a special needs teacher because her career ran across a numerous campuses. It’s a heartbreaking example of how difficult it can be to trace contact with the material as memories fade, while relevant records may not have been properly kept. It also betrays problems in allocating the burden of proof. Another area in which reform is urgently needed to prevent even more suffering for families that have been gravely affected by this century-spanning tragedy.
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