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It is generally well-accepted that mesothelioma is almost always associated with asbestos exposure. The fact that, in such cases, the disease usually only occurs between 20-40 years after exposure to asbestos, however, has lead to very real difficulties in unambiguous quantitative diagnoses and to much controversy regarding compensation and liability disputes. (It has a very poor prognosis, with most patients dying within 2-4 years of diagnosis)

There is no scientific consensus as to whether there does indeed exist a threshold of exposure to asbestos below which a person is at zero risk of developing mesothelioma. The HSE does not assume that such a threshold exists, since they consider that it cannot currently be quantified for practical purposes; they cite evidence from epidemiological studies of asbestos exposed groups to argue that any such threshold for mesothelioma must be at a very low level.

Definitions

Care should be taken to distinguish between several forms of relevant diseases. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), these may defined as:-

asbestosis (which is a slowly developing fibrosis of the lung caused by the inhalation of high concentrations of asbestos dust and/or long exposure),

lung cancer, or “bronchial carcinoma” which can result from occupational exposures to certain substances, including asbestos fibres (even without co-existing asbestosis) and,

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