Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures including 40 years of data up to 2022 shows that 305 men and 30 women died from the disease in Barrow. Association of Personal Injury Lawyers' (APIL) Daniel Easton, an industrial disease expert and executive committee member, said: "A total of 335 people in the area died from mesothelioma, a merciless deadly cancer which is caused by exposure to asbestos." Areas that have high asbestos-related mortality, such as Barrow, have links to industries like shipbuilding, which used asbestos-containing materials before it was banned.
The HSE data shows that Plymouth had the highest mortality rate with 648 male deaths and North Tyneside had the second highest with 579 male deaths. Women who die from the disease have often contracted it due to secondary exposure, such as living near factories using asbestos, or from washing their husband's asbestos-covered overalls, and breathing in asbestos fibres. Mr Easton said: "The figures, however, do not tell the whole story.
"There is another strikingly similar disease - asbestos-related lung cancer - which is just as prevalent as mesothelioma, and also arises due to exposure to asbestos." “The two cancers are so alike that doctors can mistake them for each other. "But there is a very unfair disparity legally between how victims of these two diseases are treated when it comes to seeking justice for the death sentences inflicted on them by negligent defendants.
“It can be many years after contact with.