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Experts Expect Epidemic of Asbestos Cancer

The Evening Post

      In an article due to be published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal, two Auckland Medical School researchers report that "the asbestos cancer epidemic has started".

      Tord Kjellstrom and Pamela Smartt said their calculations suggested up to 4000 people would die from malignant mesothelioma and a further 8000 from asbestos-related lung cancer.

      Mesothelioma is a cancerous tumour that usually grows in the pleura, the membrane surrounding the lungs, after microscopic needles of asbestos "migrated" through the lung tissue.

      The disease is incurable and usually kills within a year of diagnosis.

      The researchers tracked imports of crude asbestos, which peaked at 12,500 tonnes in 1974 and dropped to zero by 1992, and concluded the epidemic could peak in the next 10 to 15 years.

      Imports of blue and brown asbestos were banned in 1984.

      Professor Kjellstrom, Dr Smartt, unions and victims' representatives have called for Occupational Safety and Health to report cases, particularly mesothelioma, automatically to ACC so compensation could be accelerated. - NZPA

      Supplied by New Zealand Press Association

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