Number of Asbestos-Related Deaths

Asbestos is a known cause of various diseases that can result in death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.3 million construction and general industry workers are potentially exposed to asbestos every year. Asbestos is still used to manufacture certain asbestos-containing material (ACM), and undocumented asbestos is imported through ACM products manufactured outside of the United States.

Diseases caused by asbestos

Asbestos is the cause of a number of diseases, including:

According to the American Thoracic Society, asbestos is the largest cause of occupational cancer in the United States. A 1982 article in the U.S. Library of Medicine estimated that the total U.S. asbestos-related deaths would surpass 200,000 by the year 2030. From 1940 to 1979, approximately 27.5 million individuals were potentially exposed to asbestos in their occupations. While the number of deaths from previous exposure is estimated to decrease based on reduced occupational exposure since asbestos laws were passed, asbestos deaths are still predicted to remain substantial due to the latency of asbestos-related diseases.

Asbestosis deaths

The CDC tracked mesothelioma deaths per year from 1999 to 2005. In addition, the CDC tracked mortality rates for asbestosis, another potentially fatal asbestos-related disease, from 1968 to 2005.

The U.S. statistics available from 1968 to 2005 showed that asbestosis caused 9,024 deaths for persons older than age 25. From 1985 to 1999, information meeting the CDC’s criteria was available for occupation and industry of decedents in 26 states. However, after 1999, a lack of funding at the state level reduced the amount of reliable information available for analysis.

Some states had higher asbestos death rates than others did. The states with the highest rates for asbestosis deaths were Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and California. These four states comprised 29.9 percent of all decedents age 25 to 64 with asbestos deaths attributed to asbestosis.

However, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that asbestos-related diseases killed at least 43,073 individuals since 1979. The lack of precise systematic tracking makes statistics subject to inaccuracies, and EWG estimates that when all statistical extrapolations are considered, asbestos deaths from 1979 to 2001 were probably around 230,000 deaths.