Helen Bone is a 42-year-old mother of three young daughters. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer caused only by exposure to asbestos.
As a nurse, Helen has spent her life in hospitals — all containing asbestos, perhaps in ceilings, walls, floors, pipework, just about anywhere.
As a schoolgirl she, like millions of us, would have been in buildings where asbestos was also present.
Mesothelioma (and other asbestos-related illnesses) was once viewed as the ‘old working man’s disease’ — only contracted by builders, miners and ship workers. This is no longer the case.
We’re now seeing the premature deaths of doctors, nurses and teachers who have worked in public buildings containing asbestos, and of thousands of other Britons who were exposed to it as school children. Helen is typical of this new category of patient.
Nurse Helen Bone, 42, with daughters Livvy, 16, left, and Maddy, 13
‘I don’t know how long I will live,’ she says. ‘But I do know this will be the thing that kills me.’
The average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with mesothelioma is between four and 18 months.
But in spite of her tragic circumstances, Helen says she isn’t angry: ‘I just want to see the government take action to eradicate asbestos so that no one else has to explain to their three young daughters that Mummy isn’t going to be around for ever.’
July 5 — the day after the General Election — is Action Mesothelioma Day. Of course, an incoming government faces a challenging ‘to do’ list of competing priorities, from the economy and national security to the NHS and migration.
But, like Helen, I would like to see this issue — ridding Britain of the scourge of asbestos — high on the public health agenda. Let me explain why.
Asbestos is a silent killer: odourless, tasteless and lethal.
In fact, it is responsible for the deaths of 20,000 people in Britain every year, making it the nation’s number one occupational killer.
And yet, 5.5 million buildings in the UK still contain this hazardous material.
It is, I believe, the next big scandal — similar to the Post Office/Horizon one or the infected blood crisis — hiding in plain sight, with institutional denial and failure at its heart.
So why have successive governments, over decades, failed to do anywhere near enough to solve this crisis? The answer, I’m afraid, is a sordid tale of cover-ups, disinformation and ministerial mismanagement on an unprecedented scale.
Three years ago, Helen was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer caused only by exposure to asbestos
The purported safety of ‘undisturbed’ asbestos in our schools, hospitals and social housing is the biggest lie in public life. A lie that has already claimed thousands of lives and which will claim thousands more if action is not taken.
Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral used extensively between the 1950s and 1990s as a cheap insulator in the construction of most new buildings.
However, inhaling its microscopic fibres can cause lung cancers (including mesothelioma), as well as asbestosis, an excruciating inflammation and scarring of the lungs.
The use of brown asbestos was banned in Britain in 1985 with a similar ban for the less dangerous white derivative 14 years later. However, there has been no co-ordinated national effort to remove asbestos already in situ. In 2002, I founded a company called Lucion, an asbestos consultancy dedicated to the careful monitoring and safe removal of the material.
By 2017 we were a global leader in hazard management, advising on everything from legionella to radiation. But no matter how hard we tried, we could not get policymakers to take desperately needed legislative action on asbestos.
So, in 2019, I sold Lucion. My friends and family told me I was mad. This was a company I’d dedicated my life to and which had grown into a highly profitable, world-leading consultancy.
But I could no longer stay silent. I now run the Airtight on Asbestos campaign, which aims to pressure government into radically overhauling the UK’s approach to tackling asbestos.
A report published by the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee in 2022 cited 16 recommendations for asbestos management. Three of these I consider to be fundamental and urgent: to establish a national asbestos database; to produce a 40-year strategic plan to eradicate asbestos risk from British infrastructure; and to introduce effective air monitoring in areas where people are most at risk from it.
As a nurse, Helen has spent her life in hospitals — all containing asbestos, perhaps in ceilings, walls, floors, pipework, just about anywhere
Asbestos is a silent killer: odourless, tasteless and lethal. It is responsible for the deaths of 20,000 people in Britain every year, making it the nation’s number one occupational killer
These recommendations were endorsed by the Department for Work and Pensions and a coalition of 28 unions representing 4.5 million workers. And yet the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) refused to support the measures, and action was not taken.
So the question is, why — when France, Poland, the Netherlands and Australia are working furiously to save lives — is Britain lagging so dangerously behind?
The first issue is that mesothelioma has a latency period of up to 40 years. Of the tens of thousands diagnosed with asbestos-related illnesses each year, their exposure dates back decades, making it very difficult to prove cause and effect. They have lived their lives unaware of the ticking time bomb inside them.
The second problem is the reporting of deaths. I have told you that 20,000 people die from asbestos exposure each year in the UK. However, the HSE puts this figure at just 5,000 people — a radical underestimation that undermines the need for immediate action.
But who is right? The HSE acknowledges that around 2,000 people die of mesothelioma in the UK each year. The international standard is to assume that the ratio of mesothelioma deaths to asbestos-related deaths from other forms of cancer is 1:8. Therefore, some basic mathematics produces my 20,000 figure.
However, the HSE refutes the international standard ratio and unilaterally uses its own 1:1 ratio, which produces its figure. Why does the HSE use its own utterly baseless metric? I have asked its staff many times and never received an answer.
The third and perhaps most crucial reason why asbestos is not taken sufficiently seriously in this country is the myth — perpetuated by the HSE — that undisturbed asbestos is ‘safe’.
I’ve studied asbestos for almost a quarter of a century. Let me tell you, there is no such thing as safe brown asbestos inside an occupied building.
Asbestos is incredibly friable. It takes very little to disturb the material and release lethal, microscopic fibres into the atmosphere. Inclement weather, a child slamming a schoolroom door or simply throwing a ball against a wall is enough to release thousands of fibres into air vents and, eventually, classrooms.
And don’t forget, the buildings containing asbestos — be it a hospital or a school — were designed in the 1960s and 1970s to last roughly 40 years. They are now under near constant maintenance. Every time contractors carry out work, they will inadvertently disturb asbestos in the building. It is impossible not to.
HSE policy states that 0.1 asbestos fibres per millilitre in the air is the safe limit.
But what if I told you that 0.1 fibres per millilitre equates to 8 fibres per breath, 10,000 inhaled fibres per hour and 60,000 fibres in a school day, per child — does that still sound safe?
As a father of three myself, these numbers make me incandescent with rage.
Even more shocking is that the HSE’s own research puts the safe limit at 0.0001 — considerably lower than the current figure.
Why is there such a discrepancy between the advice of HSE scientists and their official policy?
I fear it all comes down to accountability. For the duration of its near 50-year existence, the HSE has dramatically failed the people of Britain on asbestos.
This is the biggest national scandal of our lifetimes. But nobody, from the HSE to Downing Street, wants to admit it because the liabilities will be too great — both financial and professional — for those who have failed to take action.
Ironically, a recent cost-benefit analysis estimates that it will cost the government three times as much over the long run if they don’t tackle the problem head on. Sadly, no government has ever been prepared to take a long-term view.
The reality is, we have the technology and the expertise to stop this madness. All we need now is the political will — to minimise the risks and safeguard the lives of millions of our children and young people.
A national database, an air monitoring scheme and a strategic plan to remove asbestos from our built environment — starting with buildings where there is the highest risk — is basic common sense.
Do I dare hope that a new government will listen and at last take a common sense approach towards what will otherwise be a very costly mess for the public purse — and cost many more lives in the future?
It doesn’t sound like too much to ask, does it — to make Helen Bone’s wish a reality?
