HOURIn 2021, Helen Bone was diagnosed with asbestos-related cancer. She was 38 years old. This type of cancer, mesothelioma, is incurable; the best prognosis is a few years, although most people do not live that long. “You always think of asbestos as a disease that dates back decades, affecting men who worked in heavy industry, so when I was diagnosed at 30 it was shocking.” she told the Northern Echo in 2022. “I want my children to grow up, but now I have to come to terms with the idea that this may not happen.” Sadly, Bone passed away last November, just three years after her diagnosis.
For most people, the word asbestos will bring to mind previous eras: dusty Victorian and Edwardian factories; interwar shipyards; post-war construction. However, asbestos was not banned in the UK until 1999. It still kills around 5,000 people every year, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Many anti-asbestos campaigners believe that this figure is a serious underestimate and that the real amount closer to 20,000. Mesothelioma has a long latent period: from 15 to 40 years. Helen Bone may have been exposed to asbestos at school, at college where she studied to become a critical care specialist, or at the two hospitals where she later worked.
The bone is part of what is known as third wave of asbestos deaths. The first wave consisted of those who directly worked with asbestos in mines and factories. The second wave included those who worked with or around the material: shipyard and railroad workers, builders and other tradesmen, and engineers. The third wave includes all those exposed as asbestos-containing materials deteriorate or become damaged, releasing millions of fibers into the air, unseen. If the first and second waves represent a horrific occupational disaster, the third wave represents a huge environmental and infrastructural disaster.
Around 6 million tonnes of asbestos were imported into the UK between 1870 and 1999. It remained mostly hidden behind walls and ceilings, embedded in cement roofs and pipes, and woven into textiles. British companies used two particularly harmful types: crocidolite and amosite, which were mined in South Africa. British companies Cape PLC and Turner and Newall, who led them, relied on British imperial rule and later apartheid to keep mining costs low and profits high.
Thanks to the efforts of anti-asbestos activists and trade unionists, asbestos use declined significantly in the 1980s and 90s before it was finally banned in 1999. But the ban was not accompanied by a coordinated removal program. The beginning of the new millennium was supposed to be a moment of reckoning with asbestos. Instead, the material disappeared from view, and its ban gave the impression that the problem had been solved. A lot of asbestos has been removed over the past 25 years. There are some decent companies that follow the law and operate safely. There are also many cowboy outfits it cuts corners and puts their workers and the public at risk.
Much of the asbestos remains in place and is well past its intended service life. Asbestos Control Regulations 2012 act on the basis that the risk is low if the material is not damaged or disturbed. This policy on the spot management is bad in theory and even worse in practice. A recent audit by the National Organization of Asbestos Consultants and the Asbestos Testing and Consultancy Association found that “of 128,761 buildings… inspected over a six-month period, 78% contained asbestos” and that “71% of registered asbestos items… were damaged”; 30% were considered the highest risk and required immediate removal.
The regulations place most of the responsibility on the “required person”, who is responsible for monitoring asbestos-containing materials and providing information to building users regarding asbestos management. However, in many cases, these plans do not remain living documents, but gather dust in a desk drawer. The rules do not vary by building type, although studies have shown that the risk of developing mesothelioma and lung cancer increases sharply for those in exposed when they are young. There is no differentiation by type of asbestos, although it is known that amosite and crocidolite are especially dangerous.
There are countries that have decided to solve this problem. In 2016, South Korea's Ministry of Education ordered the removal of asbestos from all schools by 2027. The government has allocated 2.872 trillion won (£1.8 billion) for the programme. Australian Asbestos and Silica Safety and Eradication Agency was founded in 2013 and coordinates a multi-phase national strategic plan to eliminate future cases of asbestos-related diseases in the country.
The HSE appears to be moving in this direction, although it has not yet set clear deadlines. In June, the all-party parliamentary group on occupational safety and health published report about the legacy of Cape plc. The group not only called on Cape parent company Altrad to pay £10 million towards asbestos-related cancer research, but also reiterated the need for the government to commit to a national asbestos removal program.
The persistent presence of asbestos in schools, hospitals, homes and other buildings poses not only a technical and logistical challenge, but also a challenge of political imagination. In the context of a worsening social and environmental crisis, the demand for removal and restoration cannot simply be a call to replace what was there before, only without asbestos. Rather, it implies a different type of society with properly funded education and health sectors, massive modernization programs and well-resourced local councils training and running their own asbestos removal teams.
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Given the voluntary budget rules and the general lack of a substantive, positive vision for the country, it is unlikely that a Labor government will come up with such a program on its own. If Britain's asbestos disaster is to be tackled, coalitions of activists, trade unionists and tenants' rights groups will be vital. In the 1970s and 80s, similar coalitions captured powerful industries and succeeded in reframing asbestos as a serious public health risk. Now, as then, change will come from below or not at all.
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Tom White is a writer and educator. Bad Dust: History Asbestos Catastrophe, his first book was published by Repeater.
