Asbestos may have been banned from use in the UK since 1999 but the hazardous material continues to pose a serious danger to the population.

Low levels of asbestos are naturally present in the air, water and soil, which usually doesn’t cause people to become ill. However, regular exposure to asbestos – in the workplace, for example – is a real health risk.

Asbestos exposure can have an insidious effect on health. It can take decades for symptoms to become noticeable but, once diagnosed, most patients die within two years.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, more than 5,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases each year, making asbestos the leading cause of work-related deaths in the UK.