By 1970 Britain led the world in asbestos regulation, yet the British mesothelioma death-rate is now the highest in the world, with 1740 deaths in men (1 in 40 of all male cancer deaths below age 80) and 316 in women in 2006. According to the latest HSE projection about 1 in 170 of all British men born in the 1940s will die of mesothelioma. The increase in mesothelioma mortality in Britain over the last 40 years is the legacy of widespread use of asbestos. Substantial exposures continued until about 1970 in parts of the asbestos industry, and until the early 1980s in the much larger workforce in construction and other occupations where asbestos lagging was applied or AIB (asbestos insulation board) was sawn. Most mesotheliomas now occurring are
due to exposures prior to 1980, and analyses of British mesothelioma deaths based on last recorded occupation suggest that former construction workers, particularly plumbers, electricians and carpenters, constitute the main high risk group, together with insulation workers, shipbuilders and locomotive engineers. However, until now, no representative study to quantify the relationship between mesothelioma risk and lifetime occupational and residential
history has been carried out in Britain. A separate scientific publication of the results set out in this report is also available(Rake et al., 2009).