A new wave of asbestos cancers is being seen in people who contracted the disease simply by being a family member of an asbestos-exposed worker. Research in the United States has identified a growing number of claims for compensation from these 'paraoccupational' victims of the incurable lung cancer mesothelioma.
The study, based on a survey of law firms involved in asbestos claims and published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, found 32 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed since 1990 among family members of workers exposed to asbestos. Wives and daughters - who often washed the work clothing used by employees - were most often affected. Dr Albert Miller of St Vincent Catholic Medical Center in New York obtained medical records and other data on asbestos claimants from 15 US law firms.
Asbestos specialist Adrian Budgen, a solicitor with law firm Irwin Mitchell, confirmed he had seen several similar cases in the UK and in one instance had represented three members of one family, only one of whom had worked with asbestos. 'I am also representing the widow of the UK's youngest known mesothelioma sufferer, Barry Welch, who died on 27 April at the age of 32,' he said. 'He'd been exposed to asbestos dust brought home on his stepfather's work overalls as a young boy'. The number of mesothelioma deaths each year in the UK is now about 2,000 and rising, with many of those dying of working age.

• Albert Miller. 2005. Mesothelioma in household members of asbestos-exposed workers: 32 United States cases since 1990. American Journal of Industrial Medicine 47(5): 458-462.
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