Deaths from certain occupational diseases caused by inhalation of mineral dusts have shown a significant decline over the last 30 years. However, the death rate from asbestosis (caused by breathing in asbestos fibers) has been rising, and now surpasses the death rates from other disabling diseases of the workplace, such as silicosis and coal workers’ pneumoconiosis. Even though the use of asbestos has declined substantially, leading to fewer workers significantly exposed, and despite regulation, new cases of asbestosis continue to appear as a result of exposures that occurred many years or decades ago.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 1,493 people died from asbestosis in 2000, compared with 77 in 1968.

Asbestos use in buildings increased substantially after World War II and peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Because asbestos-related illnesses are slow in developing -- it can take up to 40 years between the time someone is exposed to the material and dies from it -- asbestos deaths will probably increase through the next decade, said Michael Attfield, a CDC epidemiologist.

"What you've got are folks in their 60s and 70s who might otherwise live longer, but because of the damage to their lung tissue, it leads to an early death," said Forest Horne, a Raleigh, North Carolina, lawyer who represents asbestos patients. "We're paying the price now for the use of this mineral in almost every construction insulation product used back in the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, all the way to the '70s."
Source: CDC, July 2004.

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