Asbestos Risks

Barry Robson from the Asbestos Diseases Foundation says that home renovators are the next big wave of sufferers from asbestos-related disease.

“The poor buggers who work in the industrial side of the asbestos will all be dead in another 10, 15 years. But the home renovators, the young people who are renovating their homes, are dragging up old carpets without any protection and most probably have their young kids with them.

“Forty years from now, those young kids could come down with a deadly asbestos disease.”

Member of the Asbestos Research Group and thoracic surgeon, Doctor Roger Allen, says he has seen cases of home renovators suffering asbestosis or mesothelioma.

“We’ve had the first wave, which are the workers who worked mining the stuff, and then we’ve had the second wave, which is the group of people who are like the builders, the carpenters, the plumbers,” he said.

“Now we’re getting to the third wave, which are the home renovators. So we’re getting people who now even in their early 40s are coming down with mesothelioma.”