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FAQS · HEALTH & LEGISLATION
What are the health risks of asbestos exposure?.
Asbestos remains the biggest occupational killer in the UK. HSE figures attribute around 5,000 deaths a year to past asbestos exposure — more than road traffic accidents. The diseases are caused by inhaling microscopic fibres that lodge permanently in the lungs and surrounding tissue.
There is no safe threshold of exposure, which is why UK law is built around preventing fibre release altogether.
Written by the Innov8 UK Group asbestos team · Technically reviewed by our Contracts Director · Last reviewed July 2026
HEALTH
The diseases
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, almost exclusively caused by asbestos and invariably fatal. Asbestos-related lung cancer is clinically similar to smoking-related lung cancer, and the two risks multiply together. Asbestosis is progressive scarring of the lung tissue from heavy exposure, causing worsening breathlessness. Diffuse pleural thickening restricts the lungs and can be seriously disabling.
The long latency
Symptoms typically appear 15 to 60 years after exposure. Most people dying today were exposed decades ago in trades like laggers, joiners, electricians, plumbers and shipworkers. That latency is also why exposure now — from a DIY job or careless refurbishment — will not show its consequences for decades: absence of symptoms proves nothing.
Who is at risk today
With asbestos banned since 1999, today's risk falls mainly on trades who disturb it unknowingly during maintenance and refurbishment of pre-2000 buildings — and on DIYers sanding Artex, breaking up garage roofs or lifting old floor tiles. The protection is knowing before you drill, cut or strip: surveys, testing and trained contractors.
If you think you have been exposed
A single brief, low-level exposure carries a very small individual risk — but record what happened (date, location, material, duration), tell your GP so it is noted, and make sure the source is dealt with properly so it cannot happen again.
Need this dealt with?
Explore our
Asbestos management plans service, or send a photo of the material via WhatsApp for a free identification and fixed quote.
